she turned toward the
castle. There she inquired for the Marquis d'Argens, and Ranuzi's evil
genius willed that D'Argens should be found at that time in Berlin--he
was generally only to be seen at Sans-Souci. Marietta did not know the
marquis personally, but she had heard many anecdotes of the intellectual
and amiable Provencal; she knew that the marquis and the king were
warmly attached, and kept up a constant correspondence. For this reason,
she addressed herself to D'Argens; she knew it was the easiest and
quickest way to bring her communication immediately before the king. The
marquis received her kindly, and asked her to make known her request.

At first Marietta was mute, regret and repentance overcame her; for a
moment she almost resolved to be silent and to go away. Soon, however,
her wrath was awakened, and armed her with the courage of despair: with
panting breath, with strange disordered taste, she said: "I have come to
tell you a secret--an important secret, which concerns the king."

The good marquis turned pale, and asked if it related to any attempt
upon the life of the king?

"Not to his life, but it was a secret of the greatest importance,"
she replied. Then, however, when the marquis asked her to make a full
disclosure, she seemed suddenly to see Ranuzi's handsome face before
her; he looked softly, reproachfully at her with his great fathomless
eyes, whose glance she ever felt in the very depths of her heart; she
was conscious that the old love was again awake in her, and by its
mighty power crowding out the passion of revenge. A lingering hesitation
and faint-heartedness overcame her--confused and stammering, she said
she would only confide her secret to the king himself, or to that person
whom the king would authorize to receive it.

The marquis, in a vivacious manner, pressed her to speak, and made
conjectures as to the quality of her secret. Marietta found herself
involved in a net of cross-questions and answers, and took refuge at
last in absolute silence. She rose and told the marquis she would
return in eight days, to know whom the king had selected to receive her
communication.

The eight clays had now passed, and Marietta had, during this time,
many struggles with her own heart--her ever newly awakening love pleaded
eloquently for forgiveness--for the relinquishment of all her plans of
vengeance. [Footnote: The marquis, in one of his letters to the king,
described his interview with Mada