countenance which inspired the king with the greatest joy;
and when Louis was seated, —
“Sire,” said the cardinal, “I ought certainly to listen to
your majesty standing, but the violence of my complaint —-
”
“No ceremony between us, my dear monsieur le cardinal,” said
Louis kindly: “I am your pupil, and not the king, you know
very well, and this evening in particular, as I come to you
as a petitioner, as a solicitor, and one very humble, and
desirous to be kindly received, too.”
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Mazarin, seeing the heightened color of the king, was
confirmed in his first idea; that is to say, that love
thoughts were hidden under all these fine words. This time,
political cunning, keen as it was, made a mistake; this
color was not caused by the bashfulness of a juvenile
passion, but only by the painful contraction of the royal
pride.
Like a good uncle, Mazarin felt disposed to facilitate the
confidence.
“Speak, sire,” said he, “and since your majesty is willing
for an instant to forget that I am your subject, and call me
your master and instructor, I promise your majesty my most
devoted and tender consideration.”
“Thanks, monsieur le cardinal,” answered the king; “that
which I have to ask of your eminence has but little to do
with myself.”
“So much the worse!” replied the cardinal, “so much the
worse! Sire, I should wish your majesty to ask of me
something of importance, even a sacrifice; but whatever it
may be that you ask me, I am ready to set your heart at rest
by granting it, my dear sire.”
“Well, this is what brings me here,” said the king, with a
beating of the heart that had no equal except the beating of
the heart of the minister; “I have just received a visit
from my brother, the king of England.”
Mazarin bounded in his bed as if he had been put in relation
with a Leyden jar or a voltaic pile, at the same time that a
surprise, or rather a manifest disappointment, inflamed his
features with such a blaze of anger, that Louis XIV., little
diplomatist as he was, saw that the minister had hoped to
hear something else.
“Charles II.?” exclaimed Mazarin, with a hoarse voice and a
disdainful movement of his lips. “You have received a visit
from Charles II.?”
“From King Charles II.,” replied Louis, according in a
marked manner to the grandson of Henry IV. the title which
Mazarin had forgotten to give him. “Yes, monsieur le
cardinal, that unhappy prince has touched my heart with the
relation of his misfortunes. His distress is great, monsieur
le cardinal, and it has appeared painful to me, who have
seen my own throne disputed, who have been forced in times
of commotion to quit my capital, — to me, in short, who am
acquainted with misfortune, — to leave a deposed and
fugitive brother without assistance.”
“Eh!” said the cardinal, sharply; “why had he not, as you
have, a Jules Mazarin by his side? His crown would then have
remained intact.”
“I know all that my house owes to your eminence,” replied
the king, haughtily, “and you may believe well that I, on my
part, shall never forget it. It is precisely because my
brother the king of England has not about him the powerful
genius who has saved me, it is for that, I say, that I wish
to conciliate the aid of that same genius, and beg you to
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Dumas, Alexandre – Ten Years Later
extend your arm over his head, well assured, monsieur le
cardinal, that your hand, by touching him only, would know
how to replace upon his brow the crown which fell at the
foot of his father’s scaffold.”
“Sire,” replied Mazarin, “I thank you for your good opinion
with regard to myself, but we have nothing to do yonder:
they are a set of madmen who deny God, and cut off the heads
of their kings. They are dangerous, observe, sire, and
filthy to the touch after having wallowed in royal blood and
covenantal murder. That policy has never suited me, — I