twenty-four-franc

Updated: June 24, 2025

"Oh! my lord, do not believe I am so stingy as that; I delight the heart of some poor little tradesman or clerk by sending him a wing of a red partridge, a slice of venison, or a slice of a truffled pasty, dishes which he never tasted except in his dreams; these are the leavings of the twenty-four-franc prisoners; and as he eats and drinks, at dessert he cries 'Long live the King, and blesses the Bastile; with a couple bottles of champagne, which cost me five sous, I make him tipsy every Sunday.

Alexandre Dumas - Ten Years Later