Rabelais' quarter hour - Jean Hégesippe Vetter

Rabelais, penniless, must go to François 1er. He goes to an inn in Lyon, calls in the city's doctors and tells them he has a poison to kill the king. He is arrested and taken - at the expense of the city of Lyon - to François 1er in Paris.
The expression "le quart d'heure de Rabelais" (Rabelais's quarter of an hour), based on this (purely fanciful) anecdote, refers to the moment when the bill is paid.

On the painting, the men in black around the table are the doctors summoned by Rabelais. The latter, seated in the center foreground, is unpacking his belongings, helped by his valet, kneeling with his back to the table. Among his belongings are two books, open and crumpled, as well as a round glass vial, which Rabelais is presenting to the other doctors with his left hand, removed from the white cloth in which it was swaddled.
To the left, near the window, is a small, flat table. On the left, near the window, a black-clad physician with red hair and beard denounces the supposed future regicide. Behind him, a soldier dressed in red and holding a halberd steps forward to arrest Rabelais.