oice:

"You will receive his Majesty's commands."

The King remained alone, strong in his new resolution, and, proud in
having once resisted, he became anxious immediately to plunge into
political business. He walked around the immense table, and beheld as
many portfolios as they then counted empires, kingdoms, and States in
Europe. He opened one and found it divided into sections equalling in
number the subdivisions of the country to which it related. All was in
order, but in alarming order for him, because each note only referred to
the very essence of the business it alluded to, and related only to
the exact point of its then relations with France. These laconic notes
proved as enigmatic to Louis, as did the letters in cipher which
covered the table. Here all was confusion. An edict of banishment and
expropriation of the Huguenots of La Rochelle was mingled with treaties
with Gustavus Adolphus and the Huguenots of the north against the
empire. Notes on General Bannier and Wallenstein, the Duc de Weimar,
and Jean de Witt were mingled with extracts from letters taken from
the casket of the Queen, the list of the necklaces and jewels they
contained, and the double interpretation which might be put upon
every phrase of her notes. Upon the margin of one of these letters was
written: "For four lines in a man's handwriting he might be criminally
tried." Farther on were scattered denunciations against the Huguenots;
the republican plans they had drawn up; the division of France into
departments under the annual dictatorship of a chief. The seal of this
projected State was affixed to it, representing an angel leaning upon a
cross, and holding in his hand a Bible, which he raised to his forehead.
By the side was a document which contained a list of those cardinals
the pope had selected the same day as the Bishop of Lurgon (Richelieu).
Among them was to be found the Marquis de Bedemar, ambassador and
conspirator at Venice.

Louis XIII exhausted his powers in vain over the details of another
period, seeking unsuccessfully for any documents which might allude to
the present conspiracy, to enable him to perceive its true meaning, and
all that had been attempted against him, when a diminutive man, of an
olive complexion, who stooped much, entered the cabinet with a measured
step. This was a Secretary of State named Desnoyers. He advanced,
bowing.

"May I be permitted to address your Majesty on the affairs of Portugal?"
said he