y in Italy."

"I will answer with my head for his arrest, Sire; but is there not
another name to be added?"

"Who--what--Cinq-Mars?" inquired the King, hesitating.

"Exactly so, Sire," answered the Cardinal.

"I see--but--I think--we might--"

"Hear me!" exclaimed Richelieu, in a voice of thunder; "all must be
settled to-day. Your favorite is mounted at the head of his party;
choose between him and me. Yield up the boy to the man, or the man to
the boy; there is no alternative."

"And what will you do if I consent?" said the King.

"I will have his head and that of his friend."

"Never! it is impossible!" replied the King, with horror, as he relapsed
into the same state of irresolution he evinced when with Cinq-Mars
against Richelieu. "He is my friend as well as you; my heart bleeds at
the idea of his death. Why can you not both agree? Why this division?
It is that which has led him to this. You have between you brought me to
the brink of despair; you have made me the most miserable of men."

Louis hid his head in his hands while speaking, and perhaps he shed
tears; but the inflexible minister kept his eyes upon him as if
watching his prey, and without remorse, without giving the King time
for reflection--on the contrary, profiting by this emotion to speak yet
longer.

"And is it thus," he continued, in a harsh and cold voice, "that you
remember the commandments of God communicated to you by the mouth of
your confessor? You told me one day that the Church expressly commanded
you to reveal to your prime minister all that you might hear against
him; yet I have never heard from you of my intended death! It was
necessary that more faithful friends should apprise me of this
conspiracy; that the guilty themselves through the mercy of Providence
should themselves make the avowal of their fault. One only, the most
guilty, yet the least of all, still resists, and it is he who has
conducted the whole; it is he who would deliver France into the power of
the foreigner, who would overthrow in one single day my labors of twenty
years. He would call up the Huguenots of the south, invite to arms all
orders of the State, revive crushed pretensions, and, in fact, renew
the League which was put down by your father. It is that--do not deceive
yourself--it is that which raises so many heads against you. Are you
prepared for the combat? If so, where are your arms?"

The King, quite overwhelmed, made no reply; he still covered hi