l always be good friends."

"The Long Parliament still endures in England. The Commons pursue
their project; there are massacres in Ireland. The Earl of Strafford is
condemned to death."

"To death! Horrible!"

"I will read: 'His Majesty Charles I has not had the courage to sign the
sentence, but he has appointed four commissioners.'"

"Weak king, I abandon thee! Thou shalt have no more of our money. Fall,
since thou art ungrateful! Unhappy Wentworth!"

A tear rose in the eyes of Richelieu as he said this; the man who had
but now played with the lives of so many others wept for a minister
abandoned by his prince. The similarity between that position and his
own affected him, and it was his own case he deplored in the person of
the foreign minister. He ceased to read aloud the despatches that
he opened, and his confidant followed his example. He examined with
scrupulous attention the detailed accounts of the most minute and
secret actions of each person of any importance-accounts which he always
required to be added to the official despatches made by his able spies.
All the despatches to the King passed through his hands, and were
carefully revised so as to reach the King amended to the state in which
he wished him to read them. The private notes were all carefully burned
by the monk after the Cardinal had ascertained their contents. The
latter, however, seemed by no means satisfied, and he was walking
quickly to and fro with gestures expressive of anxiety, when the door
opened, and a thirteenth courier entered. This one seemed a boy hardly
fourteen years old; he held under his arm a packet sealed with black
for the King, and gave to the Cardinal only a small letter, of which
a stolen glance from Joseph could collect but four words. The Cardinal
started, tore the billet into a thousand pieces, and, bending down to
the ear of the boy, spoke to him for a long time; all that Joseph heard
was, as the messenger went out:

"Take good heed to this; not until twelve hours from this time."

During this aside of the Cardinal, Joseph was occupied in concealing an
infinite number of libels from Flanders and Germany, which the minister
always insisted upon seeing, however bitter they might be to him. In
this respect, he affected a philosophy which he was far from possessing,
and to deceive those around him he would sometimes pretend that his
enemies were not wholly wrong, and would outwardly laugh at their
pleasantries; but t