Ten Years Later by Dumas, Alexandre. Part one

children, the sisters of his majesty; and if a favor be

distributed in France, it shall be to those you love.”

“Smoke!” thought Mazarin, who knew better than any one the

faith that can be put in the promises of kings. Louis read

the dying man’s thought in his face.

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Dumas, Alexandre – Ten Years Later

“Be comforted, my dear Monsieur Mazarin,” said he, with a

half-smile, sad beneath its irony; “the Mesdemoiselles de

Mancini will lose, in losing you, their most precious good;

but they shall none the less be the richest heiresses of

France; and since you have been kind enough to give me their

dowry” — the cardinal was panting — “I restore it to

them,” continued Louis, drawing from his breast and holding

towards the cardinal’s bed the parchment which contained the

donation that, during two days, had kept alive such tempests

in the mind of Mazarin.

“What did I tell you, my lord?” murmured in the alcove a

voice which passed away like a breath.

“Your majesty returns my donation!” cried Mazarin, so

disturbed by joy as to forget his character of a benefactor.

“Your majesty rejects the forty millions!” cried Anne of

Austria, so stupefied as to forget her character of an

afflicted wife, or queen.

“Yes, my lord cardinal; yes, madame,” replied Louis XIV.,

tearing the parchment which Mazarin had not yet ventured to

clutch; “yes, I annihilate this deed, which despoiled a

whole family. The wealth acquired by his eminence in my

service is his own wealth and not mine.”

“But, sire, does your majesty reflect,” said Anne of

Austria, “that you have not ten thousand crowns in your

coffers?”

“Madame, I have just performed my first royal action, and I

hope it will worthily inaugurate my reign.”

“Ah! sire, you are right!” cried Mazarin; “that is truly

great — that is truly generous which you have just done.”

And he looked, one after the other, at the pieces of the act

spread over his bed, to assure himself that it was the

original and not a copy that had been torn. At length his

eyes fell upon the fragment which bore his signature, and

recognizing it, he sunk back on his bolster in a swoon. Anne

of Austria, without strength to conceal her regret, raised

her hands and eyes toward heaven.

“Oh! sire,” cried Mazarin, “may you be blessed! My God! May

you be beloved by all my family. Per Baccho! If ever any of

those belonging to me should cause your displeasure, sire,

only frown, and I will rise from my tomb!”

This pantalonnade did not produce all the effect Mazarin had

counted upon. Louis had already passed to considerations of

a higher nature, and as to Anne of Austria, unable to bear,

without abandoning herself to the anger she felt burning

within her, the magnanimity of her son and the hypocrisy of

the cardinal, she arose and left the chamber, heedless of

thus betraying the extent of her grief. Mazarin saw all

this, and fearing that Louis XIV. might repent his decision,

in order to draw attention another way he began to cry out,

as, at a later period, Scapin was to cry out, in that

sublime piece of pleasantry with which the morose and

grumbling Boileau dared to reproach Moliere. His cries,

however, by degrees, became fainter; and when Anne of

Austria left the apartment, they ceased altogether.

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Dumas, Alexandre – Ten Years Later

“Monsieur le cardinal,” said the king, “have you any

recommendations to make to me?”

“Sire,” replied Mazarin, “you are already wisdom itself,

prudence personified; of your generosity I shall not venture

to speak; that which you have just done exceeds all that the

most generous men of antiquity or of modern times have ever

done.”

The king received this praise coldly.

“So you confine yourself,” said he, “to your thanks — and

your experience, much more extensive than my wisdom, my

prudence, or my generosity, does not furnish you with a

single piece of friendly advice to guide my future.”

Mazarin reflected for a moment. “You have just done much for

me, sire,” said he, “that is, for my family.”

“Say no more about that,” said the king.

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