al hearts toward a son.

Athos said a word to one of the vergers, who bowed and proceeded toward
the basement.

"Come, Raoul," he said, "let us follow this man."

The verger opened the iron grating that guarded the royal tombs and
stood on the topmost step, whilst Athos and Raoul descended. The
sepulchral depths of the descent were dimly lighted by a silver lamp on
the lowest step; and just below this lamp there was laid, wrapped in a
flowing mantle of violet velvet, worked with fleurs-de-lis of gold, a
catafalque resting on trestles of oak. The young man, prepared for this
scene by the state of his own feelings, which were mournful, and by the
majesty of the cathedral which he had passed through, descended in a
slow and solemn manner and stood with head uncovered before these mortal
spoils of the last king, who was not to be placed by the side of his
forefathers until his successor should take his place there; and who
appeared to abide on that spot, that he might thus address human pride,
so sure to be exalted by the glories of a throne: "Dust of the earth!
Here I await thee!"

There was profound silence.

Then Athos raised his hand and pointing to the coffin:

"This temporary sepulture is," he said, "that of a man who was of feeble
mind, yet one whose reign was full of great events; because over this
king watched the spirit of another man, even as this lamp keeps vigil
over this coffin and illumines it. He whose intellect was thus supreme,
Raoul, was the actual sovereign; the other, nothing but a phantom to
whom he lent a soul; and yet, so powerful is majesty amongst us, this
man has not even the honor of a tomb at the feet of him in whose service
his life was worn away. Remember, Raoul, this! If Richelieu made the
king, by comparison, seem small, he made royalty great. The Palace of
the Louvre contains two things--the king, who must die, and royalty,
which never dies. The minister, so feared, so hated by his master, has
descended into the tomb, drawing after him the king, whom he would not
leave alone on earth, lest his work should be destroyed. So blind
were his contemporaries that they regarded the cardinal's death as a
deliverance; and I, even I, opposed the designs of the great man who
held the destinies of France within the hollow of his hand. Raoul, learn
how to distinguish the king from royalty; the king is but a man; royalty
is the gift of God. Whenever you hesitate as to whom you ought to
serve, aband