rs rose above the kneeling people. Every one put his hand to
his belt or in his bosom, approaching close to the soldier whom he was
to poniard.

"What is he doing?" asked the Carthusian. "Has he his hat upon his
head?"

"He throws his hat upon the ground far from him," calmly answered the
arquebusier.

CHAPTER XXVI. THE FETE

"Mon Dieu! quest-ce que ce monde!"

Dernieres paroles de M. Cinq-Mars

The same day that the melancholy procession took place at Lyons, and
during the scenes we have just witnessed, a magnificent fete was given
at Paris with all the luxury and bad taste of the time. The powerful
Cardinal had determined to fill the first two towns in France with his
pomp. The Cardinal's return was the occasion on which this fete was
announced, as given to the King and all his court.

Master of the French empire by force, the Cardinal desired to be master
of French opinion by seduction; and, weary of dominating, hoped
to please. The tragedy of "Mirame" was to be represented in a hall
constructed expressly for this great day, which raised the expenses of
this entertainment, says Pelisson, to three hundred thousand crowns.

The entire guard of the Prime-Minister were under arms; his four
companies of musketeers and gens d'armes were ranged in a line upon
the vast staircases and at the entrance of the long galleries of the
Palais-Cardinal. This brilliant pandemonium, where the mortal sins have
a temple on each floor, belonged that day to pride alone, which occupied
it from top to bottom. Upon each step was placed one of the arquebusiers
of the Cardinal's guard, holding a torch in one hand and a long carbine
in the other. The crowd of his gentlemen circulated between these
living candelabra, while in the large garden, surrounded by huge
chestnut-trees, now replaced by a range of archers, two companies of
mounted light-horse, their muskets in their hands, were ready to obey
the first order or the first fear of their master.

The Cardinal, carried and followed by his thirty-eight pages, took his
seat in his box hung with purple, facing that in which the King was half
reclining behind the green curtains which preserved him from the glare
of the flambeaux. The whole court filled the boxes, and rose when the
King appeared. The orchestra commenced a brilliant overture, and the pit
was thrown open to all the men of the town and the army who presented
themselves. Three impetuous waves