Ten Years Later by Dumas, Alexandre. Part one

and then alone. This policy has not always been over-honest,

it must be allowed, but it has never been unskillful. Now

that which is proposed to your majesty is dishonest and

unskillful at the same time.”

“Dishonest, monsieur!”

“Sire, you entered into a treaty with Cromwell.”

“Yes, and in that very treaty Cromwell signed his name above

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mine.”

“Why did you sign yours so low down, sire? Cromwell found a

good place, and he took it; that was his custom. I return,

then, to M. Cromwell. You have a treaty with him, that is to

say, with England, since when you signed that treaty M.

Cromwell was England.”

“M. Cromwell is dead.”

“Do you think so, sire?”

“No doubt he is, since his son Richard has succeeded him,

and has abdicated.”

“Yes, that is it exactly. Richard inherited after the death

of his father, and England at the abdication of Richard. The

treaty formed part of the inheritance, whether in the hands

of M. Richard or in the hands of England. The treaty is,

then, still as good, as valid as ever. Why should you evade

it, sire? What is changed? Charles wants to-day what we were

not willing to grant him ten years ago; but that was

foreseen and provided against. You are the ally of England,

sire, and not of Charles II. It was doubtless wrong, from a

family point of view, to sign a treaty with a man who had

cut off the head of the king your father’s brother-in-law,

and to contract an alliance with a parliament which they

call yonder the Rump Parliament; it was unbecoming, I

acknowledge, but it was not unskillful from a political

point of view, since, thanks to that treaty, I saved your

majesty, then a minor, the trouble and danger of a foreign

war, which the Fronde — you remember the Fronde sire?” —

the young king hung his head — “which the Fronde might have

fatally complicated. And thus I prove to your majesty that

to change our plan now; without warning our allies, would be

at once unskillful and dishonest. We should make war with

the aggression on our side, we should make it, deserving to

have it made against us, and we should have the appearance

of fearing it whilst provoking it, for a permission granted

to five hundred men, to two hundred men, to fifty men, to

ten men, is still a permission. One Frenchman, that is the

nation; one uniform, that is the army. Suppose, sire, for

example, that, sooner or later, you should have war with

Holland, which, sooner or later, will certainly happen; or

with Spain, which will perhaps ensue if your marriage fails”

(Mazarin stole a furtive glance at the king), “and there are

a thousand causes that might yet make your marriage fail, —

well, would you approve of England’s sending to the United

Provinces or to Spain a regiment, a company, a squadron

even, of English gentlemen? Would you think that they kept

within the limits of their treaty of alliance?”

Louis listened; it seemed so strange to him that Mazarin

should invoke good faith, and he the author of so many

political tricks, called Mazarinades. “And yet,” said the

king, “without any manifest authorization, I cannot prevent

gentlemen of my states from passing over into England, if

such should be their good pleasure.”

“You should compel them to return, sire, or at least protest

against their presence as enemies in an allied country.”

“But come, my lord cardinal, you who are so profound a

genius, try if you cannot find means to assist this poor

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king, without compromising ourselves.”

“And that is exactly what I am not willing to do, my dear

sire,” said Mazarin. “If England were to act exactly

according to my wishes, she could not act better than she

does; if I directed the policy of England from this place, I

should not direct it otherwise. Governed as she is governed,

England is an eternal nest of contention for all Europe.

Holland protects Charles II., let Holland do so; they will

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