urned upon his heel, after making his very best bow. The next
day he was at his post at seven o'clock. Mazarin made him wait till
ten. He remained patiently in the ante-chamber; his turn having come,
he entered; Mazarin gave him a sealed packet. On the envelope of this
packet were these words:--Monsieur Michel Letellier, etc. Colbert
looked at the packet with much attention; the cardinal put on a pleasant
countenance and pushed him towards the door.

"And the letter of the queen-mother, my lord?" asked Colbert.

"It is with the rest, in the packet," said Mazarin.

"Oh! very well," replied Colbert, and placing his hat between his knees,
he began to unseal the packet.

Mazarin uttered a cry. "What are you doing?" said he, angrily.

"I am unsealing the packet, my lord."

"You mistrust me, then, master pedant, do you? Did any one ever see such
impertinence?"

"Oh! my lord, do not be angry with me! It is certainly not your
eminence's word I place in doubt, God forbid!"

"What then?"

"It is the carefulness of your chancery, my lord. What is a letter? A
rag. May not a rag be forgotten? And look, my lord, look if I was not
right. Your clerks have forgotten the rag; the letter is not in the
packet."

"You are an insolent fellow, and you have not looked," cried Mazarin,
very angrily, "begone and wait my pleasure." Whilst saying these words,
with perfectly Italian subtlety he snatched the packet from the hands of
Colbert, and re-entered his apartments.

But this anger could not last so long as not to be replaced in time by
reason. Mazarin, every morning, on opening his closet door, found
the figure of Colbert like a sentinel behind the bench, and this
disagreeable figure never failed to ask him humbly, but with tenacity,
for the queen-mother's letter. Mazarin could hold out no longer, and
was obliged to give it up. He accompanied this restitution with a most
severe reprimand, during which Colbert contented himself with examining,
feeling, even smelling, as it were, the paper, the characters, and
the signature, neither more nor less than if he had to deal with the
greatest forger in the kingdom. Mazarin behaved still more rudely to
him, but Colbert, still impassible, having obtained a certainty that the
letter was the true one, went off as if he had been deaf. This conduct
obtained for him afterwards the post of Joubert; for Mazarin, instead
of bearing malice, admired him, and was desirous of attaching so much
fideli