suffered to be exiled--to the Duc de Beaufort, whom you imprisoned;
but if he made allusion to me it was because he is ignorant of the
relation in which I stand to you."

Anne drew up, as she always did, when anything touched her pride. She
blushed, and that she might not answer, clasped her beautiful hands till
her sharp nails almost pierced them.

"That man has sagacity, honor and wit, not to mention likewise that he
is a man of undoubted resolution. You know something about him, do you
not, madame? I shall tell him, therefore, and in doing so I shall confer
a personal favor on him, how he is mistaken in regard to me. What
is proposed to me would be, in fact, almost an abdication, and an
abdication requires reflection."

"An abdication?" repeated Anne; "I thought, sir, that it was kings alone
who abdicated!"

"Well," replied Mazarin, "and am I not almost a king--king, indeed, of
France? Thrown over the foot of the royal bed, my simar, madame, looks
not unlike the mantle worn by kings."

This was one of the humiliations which Mazarin made Anne undergo more
frequently than any other, and one that bowed her head with shame. Queen
Elizabeth and Catherine II. of Russia are the only two monarchs of their
set on record who were at once sovereigns and lovers. Anne of
Austria looked with a sort of terror at the threatening aspect of the
cardinal--his physiognomy in such moments was not destitute of a certain
grandeur.

"Sir," she replied, "did I not say, and did you not hear me say to those
people, that you should do as you pleased?"

"In that case," said Mazarin, "I think it must please me best to remain;
not only on account of my own interest, but for your safety."

"Remain, then, sir; nothing can be more agreeable to me; only do not
allow me to be insulted."

"You are referring to the demands of the rebels and to the tone in which
they stated them? Patience! They have selected a field of battle on
which I am an abler general than they--that of a conference. No, we
shall beat them by merely temporizing. They want food already. They will
be ten times worse off in a week."

"Ah, yes! Good heavens! I know it will end in that way; but it is not
they who taunt me with the most wounding reproaches, but----"

"I understand; you mean to allude to the recollections perpetually
revived by these three gentlemen. However, we have them safe in prison,
and they are just sufficiently culpable for us to keep them in prison
as