on, and
that the matter could wait.

"Still, monsieur, her offer was to grant honours for services rendered
to the state. The matter of the service that you have rendered to
Cardinal Mazarin is still untouched. It is something so new to me that
anyone in France should be so perfectly contented with his lot as to
refuse such an offer as that made to you by the queen, that I feel
somewhat at a loss what to do. I can understand that, young and ardent,
increased rank would have no charm for you. Were it otherwise I could
bestow the highest rank upon you. I am aware that your habits are
simple, for I have made inquiries, and that money in itself goes for
little in your eyes; still, sir, one who has the honour of being first
minister of France, and who is also a very rich man, cannot remain with
a debt of gratitude wholly uncancelled. I hear from my agent in Poitou
that you have voluntarily remitted the fine that your vassals would pay
on the occasion of a new lord taking possession, on account of the heavy
taxation that presses so sorely upon them.

"I honour you, sir, for such a step, and have even mentioned it to the
queen as a proof of the goodness of your disposition, and I feel sure
that there is nothing that would please you better than that I should
grant the tenants of your estate an immunity from all taxation; but this
I cannot do. All private interests must give way to the necessities
of the state. I deplore the sufferings of the cultivators of France,
sufferings that have of late driven many to take up arms. It is my duty
to repress such risings; but I have ordered the utmost leniency to be
shown to these unfortunate men, that the troops should not be quartered
upon their inhabitants, and that the officers shall see that there is
no destruction of houses and no damage to property; that would increase
still further their difficulty in paying the imposts, which I regret to
say press so sorely and unduly upon them. Tell me frankly what is the
greatest object of your ambition?"

"I thank your excellency most heartily for your kind intentions towards
me, but any ambition that I may have had is already much more than
gratified. I have never for a moment thought of, or even wished that I
might some day become lord of a fair estate and a noble of France. I
had not ventured to hope that I might become colonel of a regiment
for another fifteen years. Both these things have, thanks to the kind
appreciation of her majesty