The Queen, who will throw herself at your feet if need be,

ANNE.

Cinq-Mars calmly replaced the pistol upon the table; his first impulse
had been to turn its muzzle upon himself. However, he laid it down, and
snatching a pencil, wrote on the back of the letter;

MADAME: Marie de Gonzaga, being my wife, can not be Queen of Poland
until after my death. I die.

CINQ-MARS.

Then, as if he would not allow himself time for a moment's reflection,
he forced the letter into the hands of the courier.

"To horse! to horse!" cried he, in a furious tone. "If you remain
another instant, you are a dead man!"

He saw him gallop off, and reentered the tent. Alone with his friend, he
remained an instant standing, but pale, his eyes fixed, and looking on
the ground like a madman. He felt himself totter.

"De Thou!" he cried.

"What would you, my friend, my dear friend? I am with you. You have
acted grandly, most grandly, sublimely!"

"De Thou!" he cried again, in a hollow voice, and fell with his face to
the ground, like an uprooted tree.

Violent tempests assume different aspects, according to the climates in
which they take place. Those which have spread over a terrible space
in northern countries assemble into one single cloud under the torrid
zone--the more formidable, that they leave the horizon in all its
purity, and that the furious waves still reflect the azure of heaven
while tinged with the blood of man. It is the same with great passions.
They assume strange aspects according to our characters; but how
terrible are they in vigorous hearts, which have preserved their force
under the veil of social forms? When youth and despair embrace, we know
not to what fury they may rise, or what may be their sudden resignation;
we know not whether the volcano will burst the mountain or become
suddenly extinguished within its entrails.

De Thou, in alarm, raised his friend. The blood gushed from his nostrils
and ears; he would have thought him dead, but for the torrents of tears
which flowed from his eyes. They were the only sign of life. Suddenly
he opened his lids, looked around him, and by an extraordinary energy
resumed his senses and the power of his will.

"I am in the presence of men," said he; "I must finish with them. My
friend, it is half-past eleven; the hour for the signal has passed.
Give, in my name, the order to return to quarters. It was a false ala