end of
the world to bring you here, for I know you. You are a gallant
gentleman; you were one of the first to enter Denain, and you took
Albemarle. You were fortunate enough not to leave half your jaw there,
as I did in Italy. You were right, for it would have been a further
motive for taking away your regiment, which they have done, however."

"We will restore you that a hundredfold," said the duchess; "but now let
us speak of Spain. Prince, you have news from Alberoni, Pompadour tells
me."

"Yes, your highness."

"What are they?"

"Both good and bad. His majesty Philip V. is in one of his melancholy
moods and will not determine upon anything. He will not believe in the
treaty of the quadruple alliance."

"Will not believe in it!" cried the duchess; "and the treaty ought to be
signed now. In a week Dubois will have brought it here."

"I know it, your highness," replied Cellamare, coldly; "but his Catholic
majesty does not."

"Then he abandons us?"

"Almost."

"What becomes, then, of the queen's fine promises, and the empire she
pretends to have over her husband?"

"She promises to prove it to you, madame," replied the prince, "when
something is done."

"Yes," said the Cardinal de Polignac; "and then she will fail in that
promise."

"No, your eminence! I will answer for her."

"What I see most clearly in all this is," said Laval, "that we must
compromise the king. Once compromised, he must go on."

"Now, then," said Cellamare, "we are coming to business."

"But how to compromise him," asked the Duchesse de Maine, "without a
letter from him, without even a verbal message, and at five hundred
leagues' distance?"

"Has he not his representative at Paris, and is not that representative
in your house at this very moment, madame?"

"Prince," said the duchess, "you have more extended powers than you are
willing to admit."

"No; my powers are limited to telling you that the citadel of Toledo and
the fortress of Saragossa are at your service. Find the means of making
the regent enter there, and their Catholic majesties will close the door
on him so securely that he will not leave it again, I promise you."

"It is impossible," said Monsieur de Polignac.

"Impossible! and why?" cried D'Harmental. "On the contrary, what is more
simple? Nothing is necessary but eight or ten determined men, a
well-closed carriage, and relays to Bayonne."

"I have already offered to undertake it," said Laval.

"And I,"