nded listener
remarked, with chilling haughtiness, that he was in no position to
impugn her sincerity, he only answered the intended rebuke by persisting
that her assumed piety was a mere grimace, which could not impose upon
any man of sense; a fact which he forthwith proved by detailing all her
past career, and thus convincing her that no one incident of her
licentious life had remained a mystery to him.

"Can you now tell me," he asked, "that these adventures existed only in
the jealous imagination of the King, as you have so often assured his
Majesty himself? And will you persist in denying that you have deceived
him in the most unblushing manner? Believe me, Madame, if you had indeed
become penitent for your past errors, and had, from a sincere return to
God, desired to withdraw from the Court, you would at once have obtained
permission to do so with honour to yourself; but you have simply acted a
part, and that so unskilfully as to have deceived no one."

At this period of the interview Madame de Verneuil could not wholly
suppress her emotion, but she controlled it sufficiently to reply only
by a condescending bow, and the exclamation of, "Proceed, M. le
Ministre!"

"I will do so, Madame," said M. de Sully, "by a transition from
remonstrance to inquiry. Have you any legitimate subject of complaint
which you conceive to warrant your failure of respect towards their
Majesties?"

"If this question was dictated to you by the King, Monsieur," was the
proud reply, "he was wrong to put it, as he, better than any other
person, could himself have decided; and if it be your own suggestion you
are no less so, since whatever may be its nature, it is beyond your
power to apply the remedy."

"Then, Madame, it only remains for me to be informed of what you desire
from his Majesty."

"That which I am aware will prove less acceptable to the King than to
myself, M. le Ministre; but which I nevertheless persist in demanding,
since I am authorized by your inquiry to repeat my request. I desire
immediate permission to leave France with my parents, my brother, and my
children, and to take up my permanent residence in some other country,
where I shall have excited less jealousy and less malevolence than in
this; and I include my brother in this voluntary expatriation because I
now have reason to believe that he is suffering entirely for my sake."

Sully was startled: he could not place faith in her sincerity, and he
consequently