King Louis XIV
To the numerous applicants who waylaid him [King Louis XIV] with petitions he was in the habit of replying, ‘Je verrai’ (I will see about it).
A Gascon officer who had lost an arm in the king’s service, but who, being a Protestant, had found insuperable difficulties in the way of a pension, as a last resource approached the king in person. “Je verrai,” replied the king, and was about to pass on. “But, sire,” said the officer, “if I had said ‘Je verrai’ to my general when he sent me to the battery where I lost my arm, I should still possess it and should not be asking you for anything.” The king, struck by the justice of the answer, granted the pension on the spot.
