tence, and began to fancy
that this recommendation concealed some mystery.

More than once the king had been humiliated by the cardinal, whose
police, without having yet attained the perfection of the modern police,
were excellent, being better informed than himself, even upon what was
going on in his own household. He hoped, then, in a conversation with
Anne of Austria, to obtain some information from that conversation, and
afterward to come upon his Eminence with some secret which the cardinal
either knew or did not know, but which, in either case, would raise him
infinitely in the eyes of his minister.

He went then to the queen, and according to custom accosted her with
fresh menaces against those who surrounded her. Anne of Austria lowered
her head, allowed the torrent to flow on without replying, hoping that
it would cease of itself; but this was not what Louis XIII meant. Louis
XIII wanted a discussion from which some light or other might break,
convinced as he was that the cardinal had some afterthought and was
preparing for him one of those terrible surprises which his Eminence was
so skillful in getting up. He arrived at this end by his persistence in
accusation.

"But," cried Anne of Austria, tired of these vague attacks, "but, sire,
you do not tell me all that you have in your heart. What have I done,
then? Let me know what crime I have committed. It is impossible
that your Majesty can make all this ado about a letter written to my
brother."

The king, attacked in a manner so direct, did not know what to answer;
and he thought that this was the moment for expressing the desire which
he was not going to have made until the evening before the fete.

"Madame," said he, with dignity, "there will shortly be a ball at the
Hotel de Ville. I wish, in order to honor our worthy aldermen, you
should appear in ceremonial costume, and above all, ornamented with the
diamond studs which I gave you on your birthday. That is my answer."

The answer was terrible. Anne of Austria believed that Louis XIII
knew all, and that the cardinal had persuaded him to employ this
long dissimulation of seven or eight days, which, likewise, was
characteristic. She became excessively pale, leaned her beautiful hand
upon a CONSOLE, which hand appeared then like one of wax, and looking
at the king with terror in her eyes, she was unable to reply by a single
syllable.

"You hear, madame," said the king, who enjoyed the embarrassment to