for one of the chiefs of the revolt. But a
closer examination of his serious countenance and mournful expression
immediately showed that he blamed it, and allowed himself to be led into
it and endangered by it from an extraordinary resolution which aided
him to surmount the horror he had of the enterprise itself. From the day
when Henri d'Effiat had opened his heart and confided to him its whole
secret, he had seen clearly that all remonstrance was vain with a young
man so powerfully resolved.

De Thou had even understood what M. de Cinq-Mars had not told him, and
had seen in the secret union of his friend with the Princesse Marie, one
of those ties of love whose mysterious and frequent faults, voluptuous
and involuntary derelictions, could not be too soon purified by public
benediction. He had comprehended that punishment, impossible to be
supported long by a lover, the adored master of that young girl, and
who was condemned daily to appear before her as a stranger, to receive
political disclosures of marriages they were preparing for her. The day
when he received his entire confession, he had done all in his power to
prevent Cinq-Mars going so far in his projects as the foreign alliance.
He had evoked the gravest recollections and the best feelings, without
any other result than rendering the invincible resolution of his friend
more rude toward him. Cinq-Mars, it will be recollected, had said to him
harshly, "Well, did I ask you to take part in this conspiracy?" And he
had desired only to promise not to denounce it; and he had collected all
his power against friendship to say, "Expect nothing further from me if
you sign this treaty." Yet Cinq-Mars had signed the treaty; and De Thou
was still there with him.

The habit of familiarly discussing the projects of his friend had
perhaps rendered them less odious to him. His contempt for the vices of
the Prime-Minister; his indignation at the servitude of the parliaments
to which his family belonged, and at the corruption of justice; the
powerful names, and more especially the noble characters of the men who
directed the enterprise--all had contributed to soften down his first
painful impression. Having once promised secrecy to M. de Cinq-Mars,
he considered himself as in a position to accept in detail all the
secondary disclosures; and since the fortuitous event which had
compromised him with the conspirators at the house of Marion de Lorme,
he considered himself united t