way immediately. I will give you a paper which you must
not part with on any account, and which you will deliver into the proper
hands."

"And whither am I to go?"

"To London."

"I go to London? Go to! You jest! I have no business in London."

"But others wish that you should go there."

"But who are those others? I warn you that I will never again work in
the dark, and that I will know not only to what I expose myself, but for
whom I expose myself."

"An illustrious person sends you; an illustrious person awaits you. The
recompense will exceed your expectations; that is all I promise you."

"More intrigues! Nothing but intrigues! Thank you, madame, I am aware of
them now; Monsieur Cardinal has enlightened me on that head."

"The cardinal?" cried Mme. Bonacieux. "Have you seen the cardinal?"

"He sent for me," answered the mercer, proudly.

"And you responded to his bidding, you imprudent man?"

"Well, I can't say I had much choice of going or not going, for I was
taken to him between two guards. It is true also, that as I did not
then know his Eminence, if I had been able to dispense with the visit, I
should have been enchanted."

"He ill-treated you, then; he threatened you?"

"He gave me his hand, and called me his friend. His friend! Do you hear
that, madame? I am the friend of the great cardinal!"

"Of the great cardinal!"

"Perhaps you would contest his right to that title, madame?"

"I would contest nothing; but I tell you that the favor of a minister is
ephemeral, and that a man must be mad to attach himself to a minister.
There are powers above his which do not depend upon a man or the issue
of an event; it is to these powers we should rally."

"I am sorry for it, madame, but I acknowledge not her power but that of
the great man whom I have the honor to serve."

"You serve the cardinal?"

"Yes, madame; and as his servant, I will not allow you to be concerned
in plots against the safety of the state, or to serve the intrigues of a
woman who is not French and who has a Spanish heart. Fortunately we have
the great cardinal; his vigilant eye watches over and penetrates to the
bottom of the heart."

Bonacieux was repeating, word for word, a sentence which he had heard
from the Comte de Rochefort; but the poor wife, who had reckoned on her
husband, and who, in that hope, had answered for him to the queen, did
not tremble the less, both at the danger into which she had nearly
cast herself and