to separate, unless you love me well enough to follow me to
Italy.”
“Why,” cried the queen; “how is that?”
“Because, as they say in the opera of `Thisbe,’ `The whole
world conspires to break our bonds.'”
“You jest, sir!” answered the queen, endeavoring to assume
something of her former dignity.
“Alas! I do not, madame,” rejoined Mazarin. “Mark well what
I say. The whole world conspires to break our bonds. Now as
you are one of the whole world, I mean to say that you also
are deserting me.”
“Cardinal!”
“Heavens! did I not see you the other day smile on the Duke
of Orleans? or rather at what he said?”
“And what was he saying?”
“He said this, madame: `Mazarin is a stumbling-block. Send
him away and all will then be well.'”
“What do you wish me to do?”
“Oh, madame! you are the queen!”
“Queen, forsooth! when I am at the mercy of every scribbler
in the Palais Royal who covers waste paper with nonsense, or
of every country squire in the kingdom.”
“Nevertheless, you have still the power of banishing from
your presence those whom you do not like!”
“That is to say, whom you do not like,” returned the queen.
“I! persons whom I do not like!”
“Yes, indeed. Who sent away Madame de Chevreuse after she
Page 34
Dumas, Alexandre – Twenty Years After
had been persecuted twelve years under the last reign?”
“A woman of intrigue, who wanted to keep up against me the
spirit of cabal she had raised against M. de Richelieu.”
“Who dismissed Madame de Hautefort, that friend so loyal
that she refused the favor of the king that she might remain
in mine?”
“A prude, who told you every night, as she undressed you,
that it was a sin to love a priest, just as if one were a
priest because one happens to be a cardinal.”
“Who ordered Monsieur de Beaufort to be arrested?”
“An incendiary the burden of whose song was his intention to
assassinate me.”
“You see, cardinal,” replied the queen, “that your enemies
are mine.”
“That is not enough madame, it is necessary that your
friends should be also mine.”
“My friends, monsieur?” The queen shook her head. “Alas, I
have them no longer!”
“How is it that you have no friends in your prosperity when
you had many in adversity?”
“It is because in my prosperity I forgot those old friends,
monsieur; because I have acted like Queen Marie de Medicis,
who, returning from her first exile, treated with contempt
all those who had suffered for her and, being proscribed a
second time, died at Cologne abandoned by every one, even by
her own son.”
“Well, let us see,” said Mazarin; “isn’t there still time to
repair the evil? Search among your friends, your oldest
friends.”
“What do you mean, monsieur?”
“Nothing else than I say — search.”
“Alas, I look around me in vain! I have no influence with
any one. Monsieur is, as usual, led by his favorite;
yesterday it was Choisy, to-day it is La Riviere, to-morrow
it will be some one else. Monsieur le Prince is led by the
coadjutor, who is led by Madame de Guemenee.”
“Therefore, madame, I ask you to look, not among your
friends of to-day, but among those of other times.”
“Among my friends of other times?” said the queen.
“Yes, among your friends of other times; among those who
aided you to contend against the Duc de Richelieu and even
to conquer him.”
“What is he aiming at?” murmured the queen, looking uneasily
at the cardinal.
“Yes,” continued his eminence; “under certain circumstances,
Page 35
Dumas, Alexandre – Twenty Years After
with that strong and shrewd mind your majesty possesses,
aided by your friends, you were able to repel the attacks of
that adversary.”
“I!” said the queen. “I suffered, that is all.”
“Yes.” said Mazarin, “as women suffer in avenging
themselves. Come, let us come to the point. Do you know
Monsieur de Rochefort?”
“One of my bitterest enemies — the faithful friend of
Cardinal Richelieu.”
“I know that, and we sent him to the Bastile,” said Mazarin.
“Is be at liberty?” asked the queen.