assured signs of high favor, all came to congratulate him.

At length, released from visitors, he lay upon his camp-bed. De Thou sat
by his side, holding his hand, and Grandchamp at his feet, still
grumbling at the numerous interruptions that had fatigued his wounded
master. Cinq-Mars himself tasted one of those moments of calm and hope,
which so refresh the soul as well as the body. His free hand secretly
pressed the gold cross that hung next to his heart, the beloved donor of
which he was so soon to behold. Outwardly, he listened with kindly looks
to the counsels of the young magistrate; but his inward thoughts were all
turned toward the object of his journey--the object, also, of his life.
The grave De Thou went on in a calm, gentle voice:

"I shall soon follow you to Paris. I am happier than you at seeing the
King take you there with him. You are right in looking upon it as the
beginning of a friendship which must be turned to profit. I have
reflected deeply on the secret causes of your ambition, and I think I
have divined your heart. Yes; that feeling of love for France, which made
it beat in your earliest youth, must have gained greater strength. You
would be near the King in order to serve your country, in order to put in
action those golden dreams of your early years. The thought is a vast
one, and worthy of you! I admire you; I bow before you. To approach the
monarch with the chivalrous devotion of our fathers, with a heart full of
candor, and prepared for any sacrifice; to receive the confidences of his
soul; to pour into his those of his subjects; to soften the, sorrows of
the King by telling him the confidence his people have in him; to cure
the wounds of the people by laying them open to its master, and by the
intervention of your favor thus to reestablish that intercourse of love
between the father and his children which for eighteen years has been
interrupted by a man whose heart is marble; for this noble enterprise, to
expose yourself to all the horrors of his vengeance and, what is even
worse, to brave all the perfidious calumnies which pursue the favorite to
the very steps of the throne--this dream was worthy of you.

"Pursue it, my friend," De Thou continued. "Never become discouraged.
Speak loudly to the King of the merit and misfortunes of his most
illustrious friends who are trampled on. Tell him fearlessly that his old
nobility have never conspired against him; and that from the young
Montmoren