, that consecrated it."

As he spoke, he opened the light grating which separated him from his old
tutor; the latter, still observing an extraordinary silence, passed his
hood over his forehead.

"Restore this nuptial ring to the Duchesse de Mantua," said Cinq-Mars, in
a tone less firm; "I can not keep it unless she give it me a second time,
for I am not the same whom she promised to espouse."

The priest hastily seized the ring, and passed it through the opposite
grating; this mark of indifference astonished Cinq-Mars.

"What! Father," he said, "are you also changed?"

Marie wept no longer; but, raising her angelic voice, which awakened a
faint echo along the aisles of the church, as the softest sigh of the
organ, she said, returning the ring to Cinq-Mars:

"O dearest, be not angry! I comprehend you not. Can we break asunder what
God has just united, and can I leave you, when I know you are unhappy? If
the King no longer loves you, at least you may be assured he will not
harm you, since he has not harmed the Cardinal, whom he never loved. Do
you think yourself undone, because he is perhaps unwilling to separate
from his old servant? Well, let us await the return of his friendship;
forget these conspirators, who affright me. If they give up hope, I shall
thank Heaven, for then I shall no longer tremble for you. Why needlessly
afflict ourselves? The Queen loves us, and we are both very young; let us
wait. The future is beautiful, since we are united and sure of ourselves.
Tell me what the King said to you at Chambord. I followed you long with
my eyes. Heavens! how sad to me was that hunting party!"

"He has betrayed me, I tell you," answered Cinq-Mars. "Yet who could have
believed it, that saw him press our hands, turning from his brother to
me, and to the Duc de Bouillon, making himself acquainted with the
minutest details of the conspiracy, of the very day on which Richelieu
was to be arrested at Lyons, fixing himself the place of his exile (our
party desired his death, but the recollection of my father made me ask
his life). The King said that he himself would direct the whole affair at
Perpignan; yet just before, Joseph, that foul spy, had issued from out of
the cabinet du Lys. O Marie! shall I own it? at the moment I heard this,
my very soul was tossed. I doubted everything; it seemed to me that the
centre of the world was unhinged when I found truth quit the heart of the
King. I saw our whole edifice crumble