that, when arrived at the summit, you will judge me still more
worthy to be your friend: and then, monseigneur, we two will do such
great deeds that ages hereafter shall long speak of them."

"Tell me plainly, monsieur--tell me without disguise--what I am to-day,
and what you aim at my being to-morrow."

"You are the son of King Louis XIII., brother of Louis XIV., natural and
legitimate heir to the throne of France. In keeping you near him, as
Monsieur has been kept--Monsieur your younger brother--the king reserved
to himself the right of being legitimate sovereign. The doctors only
could dispute his legitimacy. But the doctors always prefer the king who
is, to the king who is not. Providence has willed that you should be
persecuted; and this persecution to-day consecrates you king of France.
You had then a right to reign, seeing that it is disputed; you had a
right to be proclaimed, seeing that you have been concealed; and you
possess royal blood, since no one has dared to shed yours, as your
servants' has been shed. Now see, then, what this Providence, which you
have so often accused of having in every way thwarted you, has done for
you. It has given you the features, figure, age, and voice of your
brother; and the very causes of your persecution are about to become
those of your triumphant restoration. To-morrow, after to-morrow--from
the very first, regal phantom, living shade of Louis XIV., you will sit
upon his throne, whence the will of Heaven, confided in execution to the
arm of man, will have hurled him, without hope of return."

"I understand," said the prince, "my brother's blood will not be shed,
then."

"You will be sole arbiter of his fate."

"The secret of which they made an evil use against me?"

"You will employ it against him. What did he do to conceal it? He
concealed you. Living image of himself, you will defeat the conspiracy
of Mazarin and Anne of Austria. You, my prince, will have the same
interest in concealing him, who will, as a prisoner, resemble you, as
you will resemble him as king."

"I fall back on what I was saying to you. Who will guard him?"

"Who guarded you?"

"You know this secret--you have made use of it with regard to myself.
Who else knows it?"

"The queen-mother and Madame de Chevreuse."

"What will they do?"

"Nothing, if you choose."

"How is that?"

"How can they recognize you, if you act in a manner that no one can
recognize you?"

"'Tis true: but there ar