! you do not answer; you are embarrassed.
She has then taken your fancy; or you fear to offend our friend Monsieur
de Thou in comparing her with the beautiful Guemenee. Well, let's talk
of the customs; the King has a charming dwarf I'm told, and they put
him in a pie. He is a fortunate man, that King of Spain! I don't know
another equally so. And the Queen, she is still served on bended knee,
is she not? Ah! that is a good custom; we have lost it. It is very
unfortunate--more unfortunate than may be supposed."

And Gaston d'Orleans had the confidence to speak in this tone nearly
half an hour, with a young man whose serious character was not at
all adapted to such conversation, and who, still occupied with the
importance of the scene he had just witnessed and the great interests
which had been discussed, made no answer to this torrent of idle words.
He looked at the Duc de Bouillon with an astonished air, as if to ask
him whether this was really the man whom they were going to place at the
head of the most audacious enterprise that had ever been launched; while
the Prince, without appearing to perceive that he remained unanswered,
replied to himself, speaking with volubility, as he drew him gradually
out of the room. He feared that one of the gentlemen present might
recommence the terrible conversation about the treaty; but none desired
to do so, unless it were the Duc de Bouillon, who, however, preserved an
angry silence. As for Cinq-Mars, he had been led away by De Thou, under
cover of the chattering of Monsieur, who took care not to appear to
notice their departure.

BOOK 5.

CHAPTER XVIII. THE SECRET

De Thou had reached home with his friend; his doors were carefully shut,
and orders given to admit no one, and to excuse him to the refugees for
allowing them to depart without seeing them again; and as yet the two
friends had not spoken to each other.

The counsellor had thrown himself into his armchair in deep meditation.
Cinq-Mars, leaning against the lofty chimneypiece, awaited with a
serious and sorrowful air the termination of this silence. At length De
Thou, looking fixedly at him and crossing his arms, said in a hollow and
melancholy voice:

"This, then, is the goal you have reached! These, the consequences of
your ambition! You are are about to banish, perhaps slay, a man, and
to bring then, a foreign army into France; I am, then, to see you an
assassin and a traitor to your country! By what