“Woman is weak, Monsieur Cardinal,” said the king; “and as to loving me much, I have my own opinion as to that love.”
“I not the less maintain,” said the cardinal, “that the Duke of Buckingham came to Paris for a project wholly political.”
“And I am sure that he came for quite another purpose, Monsieur Cardinal; but if the queen be guilty, let her tremble!”
“Indeed,” said the cardinal, “whatever repugnance I may have to directing my mind to such a treason, your Majesty compels me to think of it. Madame de Lannoy, whom, according to your Majesty’s command, I have frequently interrogated, told me this morning that the night before last her Majesty sat up very late, that this morning she wept much, and that she was writing all day.”
“That’s it!” cried the king; “to him, no doubt. Cardinal, I must have the queen’s papers.”
“But how to take them, sire? It seems to me that it is neither your Majesty nor myself who can charge himself with such a mission.”
“How did they act with regard to the Marechale d’Ancre?” cried the king, in the highest state of choler; “first her closets were thoroughly searched, and then she herself.”
“The Marechale d’Ancre was no more than the Marechale d’Ancre. A Florentine adventurer, sire, and that was all; while the august spouse of your Majesty is Anne of Austria, Queen of France–that is to say, one of the greatest princesses in the world.”
“She is not the less guilty, Monsieur Duke! The more she has forgotten the high position in which she was placed, the more degrading is her fall. Besides, I long ago determined to put an end to all these petty intrigues of policy and love. She has near her a certain Laporte.”
“Who, I believe, is the mainspring of all this, I confess,” said the cardinal.
“You think then, as I do, that she deceives me?” said the king.
“I believe, and I repeat it to your Majesty, that the queen conspires against the power of the king, but I have not said against his honor.”
“And I–I tell you against both. I tell you the queen does not love me; I tell you she loves another; I tell you she loves that infamous Buckingham! Why did you not have him arrested while in Paris?”
“Arrest the Duke! Arrest the prime minister of King Charles I! Think of it, sire! What a scandal! And if the suspicions of your Majesty, which I still continue to doubt, should prove to have any foundation, what a terrible disclosure, what a fearful scandal!”
“But as he exposed himself like a vagabond or a thief, he should have been–”
Louis XIII stopped, terrified at what he was about to say, while Richelieu, stretching out his neck, waited uselessly for the word which had died on the lips of the king.
“He should have been–?”
“Nothing,” said the king, “nothing. But all the time he was in Paris, you, of course, did not lose sight of him?”
“No, sire.”
“Where did he lodge?”
“Rue de la Harpe. No. 75.”
“Where is that?”
“By the side of the Luxembourg.”
“And you are certain that the queen and he did not see each other?”
“I believe the queen to have too high a sense of her duty, sire.”
“But they have corresponded; it is to him that the queen has been writing all the day. Monsieur Duke, I must have those letters!”
“Sire, notwithstanding–”
“Monsieur Duke, at whatever price it may be, I will have them.”
“I would, however, beg your Majesty to observe–”
“Do you, then, also join in betraying me, Monsieur Cardinal, by thus always opposing my will? Are you also in accord with Spain and England, with Madame de Chevreuse and the queen?”
“Sire,” replied the cardinal, sighing, “I believed myself secure from such a suspicion.”
“Monsieur Cardinal, you have heard me; I will have those letters.”
“There is but one way.”
“What is that?”
“That would be to charge Monsieur de Seguier, the keeper of the seals, with this mission. The matter enters completely into the duties of the post.”
“Let him be sent for instantly.”
“He is most likely at my hotel. I requested him to call, and when I came to the Louvre I left orders if he came, to desire him to wait.”