rs a blemish, every glory a stain.
The king has suffered; it rankles in his mind; and he will avenge
himself. He will be a bad king. I say not that he will pour out his
people's blood, like Louis XI., or Charles IX.; for he has no mortal
injuries to avenge; but he will devour the means and substance of his
people; for he has himself undergone wrongs in his own interest and
money. In the first place, then, I acquit my conscience, when I consider
openly the merits and the faults of this great prince; and if I condemn
him, my conscience absolves me."

Aramis paused. It was not to listen if the silence of the forest
remained undisturbed, but it was to gather up his thoughts from the very
bottom of his soul--to leave the thoughts he had uttered sufficient time
to eat deeply into the mind of his companion.

"All that Heaven does, Heaven does well," continued the bishop of
Vannes; "and I am so persuaded of it that I have long been thankful
to have been chosen depositary of the secret which I have aided you
to discover. To a just Providence was necessary an instrument, at once
penetrating, persevering, and convinced, to accomplish a great work. I
am this instrument. I possess penetration, perseverance, conviction; I
govern a mysterious people, who has taken for its motto, the motto
of God, '_Patiens quia oeternus_.'" The prince moved. "I divine,
monseigneur, why you are raising your head, and are surprised at the
people I have under my command. You did not know you were dealing with a
king--oh! monseigneur, king of a people very humble, much disinherited;
humble because they have no force save when creeping; disinherited,
because never, almost never in this world, do my people reap the harvest
they sow, nor eat the fruit they cultivate. They labor for an abstract
idea; they heap together all the atoms of their power, to from a single
man; and round this man, with the sweat of their labor, they create a
misty halo, which his genius shall, in turn, render a glory gilded with
the rays of all the crowns in Christendom. Such is the man you have
beside you, monseigneur. It is to tell you that he has drawn you from
the abyss for a great purpose, to raise you above the powers of the
earth--above himself." [1]

The prince lightly touched Aramis's arm. "You speak to me," he said,
"of that religious order whose chief you are. For me, the result of your
words is, that the day you desire to hurl down the man you shall have
raised, the ev