thought that calumny was
stifled or extinct; you have spared me till now, but since you speak of
it, once for all, I tell you----"

"Madame, I do not ask you to tell me," said Mazarin, astounded by this
returning courage.

"I will tell you all," replied Anne. "Listen: there were in truth,
at that epoch, four devoted hearts, four loyal spirits, four faithful
swords, who saved more than my life--my honor----"

"Ah! you confess it!" exclaimed Mazarin.

"Is it only the guilty whose honor is at the sport of others, sir? and
cannot women be dishonored by appearances? Yes, appearances were against
me and I was about to suffer dishonor. However, I swear I was not
guilty, I swear it by----"

The queen looked around her for some sacred object by which she could
swear, and taking out of a cupboard hidden in the tapestry, a small
coffer of rosewood set in silver, and laying it on the altar:

"I swear," she said, "by these sacred relics that Buckingham was not my
lover."

"What relics are those by which you swear?" asked Mazarin, smiling. "I
am incredulous."

The queen untied from around her throat a small golden key which hung
there, and presented it to the cardinal.

"Open, sir," she said, "and look for yourself."

Mazarin opened the coffer; a knife, covered with rust, and two letters,
one of which was stained with blood, alone met his gaze.

"What are these things?" he asked.

"What are these things?" replied Anne, with queen-like dignity,
extending toward the open coffer an arm, despite the lapse of years,
still beautiful. "These two letters are the only ones I ever wrote to
him. This knife is the knife with which Felton stabbed him. Read the
letters and see if I have lied or spoken the truth."

But Mazarin, notwithstanding this permission, instead of reading the
letters, took the knife which the dying Buckingham had snatched out of
the wound and sent by Laporte to the queen. The blade was red, for the
blood had become rust; after a momentary examination during which the
queen became as white as the cloth which covered the altar on which she
was leaning, he put it back into the coffer with an involuntary shudder.

"It is well, madame, I believe your oath."

"No, no, read," exclaimed the queen, indignantly; "read, I command you,
for I am resolved that everything shall be finished to-night and never
will I recur to this subject again. Do you think," she said, with a
ghastly smile, "that I shall be inclined to r