free and full
confession, or I will expel him from the kingdom. I have written to him
this morning.

[MONSIEUR: Since God wills that men should have recourse to a frank
and entire confession to be absolved of their faults in this world,
I indicate to you the steps you must take to be delivered from this
danger. Your Highness has commenced well; you must continue. This
is all I can say to you.]

"As to the magnificent and powerful Due de Bouillon, sovereign lord
of Sedan and general-in-chief of the armies in Italy, he has just been
arrested by his officers in the midst of his soldiers, concealed in a
truss of straw. There remain, therefore, only our two young neighbors.
They imagine they have the camp wholly at their orders, while they
really have only the red troops. All the rest, being Monsieur's men,
will not act, and my troops will arrest them. However, I have permitted
them to appear to obey. If they give the signal at half-past eleven,
they will be arrested at the first step. If not, the King will give them
up to me this evening. Do not open your eyes so wide. He will give them
up to me, I repeat, this night, between midnight and one o'clock. You
see that all has been done without you, Joseph. We can dispense with you
very well; and truly, all this time, I do not see that we have received
any great service from you. You grow negligent."

"Ah, Monseigneur! did you but know the trouble I have had to discover
the route of the bearers of the treaty! I only learned it by risking my
life between these young people."

The Cardinal laughed contemptuously, leaning back in his chair.

"Thou must have been very ridiculous and very fearful in that box,
Joseph; I dare say it was the first time in thy life thou ever heardst
love spoken of. Dost thou like the language, Father Joseph? Tell me,
dost thou clearly understand it? I doubt whether thou hast formed a very
refined idea of it."

Richelieu, his arms crossed, looked at his discomfited Capuchin with
infinite delight, and continued in the scornfully familiar tone of
a grand seigneur, which he sometimes assumed, pleasing himself with
putting forth the noblest expressions through the most impure lips:

"Come, now, Joseph, give me a definition of love according to thy idea.
What can it be--for thou seest it exists out of romances. This worthy
youngster undertook these little conspiracies through love. Thou heardst
it thyself with throe unworthy ears. Come,