and urging the immediate removal
of the obnoxious minister from office. Louis, weak and wavering as was
his wont, endeavoured to temporize, declaring that the crisis was one of
too much difficulty to admit of so extreme a measure at that moment, and
entreating her to sanction his delaying for a few weeks the fulfilment
of his promise; but Marie was aware that she stood upon the brink of a
precipice, and she became only the more importunate in her demands, and
the more bitter in her sarcasms.

"Are you indeed the sovereign of France, and the son of Henry the
Great?" she asked passionately; "and do you quail before a subject, and
place your sceptre in other hands, when you were born to wield it in
the eyes of Europe?"

"I cannot dispense with the services of the Cardinal," was the sullen
reply; "and you would do well, Madame, to become reconciled to a man who
is essential to the welfare of the kingdom."

"_Per Dio_! never!" exclaimed the Queen resolutely, while tears of rage
burst from her eyes, and the blood mounted to her brow. "France, and the
widow of her former monarch, can alike dispense with the good services
of Armand de Richelieu, the false friend, the treacherous servant, and
the ambitious statesman. It is time that both were delivered from his
thrall. Do not fear, Sir, that our noble nation can produce no other
minister as able as, and at the same time more trustworthy than, the man
who, when he bends his knee before you, is in heart clutching at
your crown."

"What mean you, Madame?" asked the suspicious King, starting from his
seat.

"Ask your good citizens, Sire, by whom they are governed," was the
impetuous answer of the excited Queen; "ask your nobles and barons by
whom they are oppressed and thwarted, when they would feign recognize
their sovereign alone as their ruler; ask your brave armies who has
reaped the glory for which you have imperilled your health, and gone
near to sacrifice your life. Do you shrink from the exertion necessary
to the measure that I propose?" she continued as she remarked the
effect of her words upon the King, whose wounded vanity revolted against
the idea of being considered what he really was, a puppet in the hands
of his minister. "Dismiss the apprehension. Trusting to your royal
word--and the word of an anointed monarch, Sire, is as sacred as the
oath of the first subject in his realm--I have been careful to spare you
all unnecessary fatigue. Here," and as she spoke she