, we will have no
secrets from you, and the opportunity you require, and which will place
each of us in our proper position--"

"Excuse me, Madame la Duchesse," interrupted the cardinal, who was
playing uneasily with his necktie, "but, from your manner, the chevalier
will think that the affair is a conspiracy."

"And what is it then, cardinal?" asked the duchess, impatiently.

"It is," said the cardinal, "a council, secret, it is true, but in no
degree reprehensible, in which we only seek a means of remedying the
misfortunes of the state, and enlightening France on her true interests,
by recalling the last will of the king, Louis XIV."

"Stay, cardinal!" said the duchess, stamping her foot; "you will kill me
with impatience by your circumlocutions. Chevalier," continued she,
addressing D'Harmental, "do not listen to his eminence, who at this
moment, doubtless, is thinking of his Lucrece. If it had been a simple
council, the talents of his eminence would soon have extricated us from
our troubles, without the necessity of applying to you; but it is a bona
fide conspiracy against the regent--a conspiracy which numbers the king
of Spain, Cardinal Alberoni, the Duc de Maine, myself, the Marquis de
Pompadour, Monsieur de Malezieux, l'Abbe Brigaud, Valef, yourself, the
cardinal himself the president; and which will include half the
parliament and three parts of France. This is the matter in hand,
chevalier. Are you content, cardinal? Have I spoken clearly, gentlemen?"

"Madame--" murmured Malezieux, joining his hands before her with more
devotion than he would have done before the Virgin.

"No, no; stop, Malezieux," said the duchess, "but the cardinal enrages
me with his half-measures. Mon Dieu! are these eternal waverings worthy
of a man? For myself, I do not ask a sword, I do not ask a dagger; give
me but a nail, and I, a woman, and almost a dwarf, will go, like a new
Jael, and drive it into the temple of this other Sisera. Then all will
be finished; and, if I fail, no one but myself will be compromised."

Monsieur de Polignac sighed deeply; Pompadour burst out laughing;
Malezieux tried to calm the duchess; and Brigaud bent his head, and went
on writing as if he had heard nothing. As to D'Harmental, he would have
kissed the hem of her dress, so superior was this woman, in his eyes, to
the four men who surrounded her.

At this moment they heard the sound of a carriage, which drove into the
courtyard and stopped at the