but for a season; the Lord--as correctives to honor and
riches--the Lord has placed sufferings, sickness, and death; and no
one," added she, with a melancholy smile, which proved she made the
application of the funeral precept to herself, "no man can take his
wealth or greatness with him to the grave. It results, therefore, that
the young gather the abundant harvest prepared for them by the old."

Louis listened with increased attention to the words which Anne of
Austria, no doubt, pronounced with a view to console him. "Madame," said
he, looking earnestly at his mother, "one would almost say in truth that
you had something else to announce to me."

"I have absolutely nothing, my son; only you cannot have failed to
remark that his eminence the cardinal is very ill."

Louis looked at his mother, expecting some emotion in her voice, some
sorrow in her countenance. The face of Anne of Austria appeared a little
changed, but that was from sufferings of quite a personal character.
Perhaps the alteration was caused by the cancer which had begun to
consume her breast. "Yes, madame," said the king; "yes, M. de Mazarin is
very ill."

"And it would be a great loss to the kingdom if God were to summon his
eminence away. Is not that your opinion as well as mine, my son?" said
the queen.

"Yes, madame; yes, certainly, it would be a great loss for the kingdom,"
said Louis, coloring; "but the peril does not seem to me to be so great;
besides, the cardinal is still young." The king had scarcely ceased
speaking when an usher lifted the tapestry, and stood with a paper in
his hand, waiting for the king to speak to him.

"What have you there?" asked the king.

"A message from M. de Mazarin," replied the usher.

"Give it to me," said the king; and he took the paper. But at the moment
he was about to open it, there was a great noise in the gallery, the
ante-chamber, and the court.

"Ah, ah," said Louis XIV., who doubtless knew the meaning of that
triple noise. "How could I say there was but one king in France! I was
mistaken, there are two."

As he spoke or thought thus, the door opened, and the superintendent of
the finances, Fouquet, appeared before his nominal master. It was he
who made the noise in the ante-chamber, it was his horses that made the
noise in the courtyard. In addition to all this, a loud murmur was heard
along his passage, which did not die away till some time after he had
passed. It was this murmur which Loui