ere being read for the cardinal. At one o'clock in the
morning, Guenaud had administered the last remedy. This was a relic of
the old customs of that fencing time, which was about to disappear to
give place to another time, to believe that death could be kept off
by some good secret thrust. Mazarin, after having taken the remedy,
respired freely for nearly ten minutes. He immediately gave orders that
the news should be spread everywhere of a fortunate crisis. The king, on
learning this, felt as if a cold sweat were passing over his brow;--he
had had a glimpse of the light of liberty; slavery appeared to him more
dark and less acceptable than ever. But the bulletin which followed
entirely changed the face of things. Mazarin could no longer breathe
at all, and could scarcely follow the prayers which the cure of
Saint-Nicholas-des-Champs recited near him. The king resumed his
agitated walk about his chamber, and consulted, as he walked, several
papers drawn from a casket of which he alone had the key. A third time
the nurse returned. M. de Mazarin had just uttered a joke, and had
ordered his "Flora," by Titian, to be revarnished. At length, towards
two o'clock in the morning, the king could no longer resist his
weariness: he had not slept for twenty-four hours. Sleep, so powerful
at his age, overcame him for about an hour. But he did not go to bed for
that hour, he slept in a fauteuil. About four o'clock his nurse awoke
him by entering the room.

"Well?" asked the king.

"Well, my dear sire," said the nurse, clasping her hands with an air of
commiseration. "Well, he is dead!"

The king arose at a bound, as if a steel spring had been applied to his
legs. "Dead!" cried he.

"Alas! yes."

"Is it quite certain?"

"Yes."

"Official?"

"Yes."

"Has the news been made public?"

"Not yet."

"Who told you, then, that the cardinal was dead?"

"M. Colbert."

"M. Colbert?"

"Yes."

"And was he sure of what he said?"

"He came out of the chamber, and had held a glass for some minutes
before the cardinal's lips."

"Ah!" said the king. "And what is become of M. Colbert?"

"He has just left his eminence's chamber."

"Where is he?"

"He followed me."

"So that he is----"

"Sire, waiting at your door, till it shall be your good pleasure to
receive him."

Louis ran to the door, opened it himself, and perceived Colbert standing
waiting in the passage. The king started at sight of this statue, all
clothed in