yet made cardinal!"

"No, my lord, but he will be," answered the guard.

Mazarin made a grimace, as if he meant to say, "But he does not wear the
cardinal's cap;" then he added:

"So, my friend, it's your opinion that Monsieur de Beaufort will
escape?"

"That's my idea, my lord; and if your eminence were to offer to make me
at this moment governor of the castle of Vincennes, I should refuse it.
After Whitsuntide it would be another thing."

There is nothing so convincing as a firm conviction. It has its own
effect upon the most incredulous; and far from being incredulous,
Mazarin was superstitious. He went away thoughtful and anxious and
returned to his own room, where he summoned Bernouin and desired him
to fetch thither in the morning the special guard he had placed over
Monsieur de Beaufort and to awaken him whenever he should arrive.

The guard had, in fact, touched the cardinal in the tenderest point.
During the whole five years in which the Duc de Beaufort had been in
prison not a day had passed in which the cardinal had not felt a secret
dread of his escape. It was not possible, as he knew well, to confine
for the whole of his life the grandson of Henry IV., especially when
this young prince was scarcely thirty years of age. But however and
whensoever he did escape, what hatred he must cherish against him to
whom he owed his long imprisonment; who had taken him, rich, brave,
glorious, beloved by women, feared by men, to cut off his life's best,
happiest years; for it is not life, it is merely existence, in prison!
Meantime, Mazarin redoubled his surveillance over the duke. But like
the miser in the fable, he could not sleep for thinking of his treasure.
Often he awoke in the night, suddenly, dreaming that he had been robbed
of Monsieur de Beaufort. Then he inquired about him and had the vexation
of hearing that the prisoner played, drank, sang, but that whilst
playing, drinking, singing, he often stopped short to vow that Mazarin
should pay dear for all the amusements he had forced him to enter into
at Vincennes.

So much did this one idea haunt the cardinal even in his sleep, that
when at seven in the morning Bernouin came to arouse him, his first
words were: "Well, what's the matter? Has Monsieur de Beaufort escaped
from Vincennes?"

"I do not think so, my lord," said Bernouin; "but you will hear about
him, for La Ramee is here and awaits the commands of your eminence."

"Tell him to come in," said M