it.

This stiffness of manner in Colbert had been of great service to him; it
is so true that Fortune, when she has a caprice, resembles those women
of antiquity, who, when they had a fancy, were disgusted by no physical
or moral defects in either men or things. Colbert, placed with Michel
Letellier, secretary of state in 1648, by his cousin Colbert, Seigneur
de Saint-Penange, who protected him, received one day from the minister
a commission for Cardinal Mazarin. His eminence was then in the
enjoyment of flourishing health, and the bad years of the Fronde had
not yet counted triple and quadruple for him. He was at Sedan, very much
annoyed at a court intrigue in which Anne of Austria seemed inclined to
desert his cause.

Of this intrigue Letellier held the thread. He had just received a
letter from Anne of Austria, a letter very valuable to him, and strongly
compromising Mazarin; but, as he already played the double part which
served him so well, and by which he always managed two enemies so as to
draw advantage from both, either by embroiling them more and more or
by reconciling them, Michel Letellier wished to send Anne of Austria's
letter to Mazarin, in order that he might be acquainted with it,
and consequently pleased with his having so willingly rendered him a
service. To send the letter was an easy matter; to recover it again,
after having communicated it, that was the difficulty. Letellier cast
his eyes around him, and seeing the black and meager clerk with the
scowling brow, scribbling away in his office, he preferred him to the
best gendarme for the execution of this design.

Colbert was commanded to set out for Sedan, with positive orders to
carry the letter to Mazarin, and bring it back to Letellier. He listened
to his orders with scrupulous attention, required the instructions to be
repeated twice, and was particular in learning whether the bringing back
was as necessary as the communicating, and Letellier replied sternly,
"More necessary." Then he set out, traveled like a courier, without any
care for his body, and placed in the hands of Mazarin, first a letter
from Letellier, which announced to the cardinal the sending of the
precious letter, and then that letter itself. Mazarin colored greatly
whilst reading Anne of Austria's letter, gave Colbert a gracious smile
and dismissed him.

"When shall I have the answer, monseigneur?"

"To-morrow."

"To-morrow morning?"

"Yes, monsieur."

The clerk t