,"
he said, "that your eminence knew that circumstance better than any
one----"

"I? Oh no! There is a congestion of prisoners in the Bastile, who were
cooped up in the time of Monsieur de Richelieu; I don't even know their
names."

"Yes, but in regard to myself, my lord, it cannot be so, for I was
removed from the Chatelet to the Bastile owing to an order from your
eminence."

"You think you were."

"I am certain of it."

"Ah, stay! I fancy I remember it. Did you not once refuse to undertake a
journey to Brussels for the queen?"

"Ah! ah!" exclaimed Rochefort. "There is the true reason! Idiot that
I am, though I have been trying to find it out for five years, I never
found it out."

"But I do not say it was the cause of your imprisonment. I merely ask
you, did you not refuse to go to Brussels for the queen, whilst you had
consented to go there to do some service for the late cardinal?"

"That is the very reason I refused to go back to Brussels. I was there
at a fearful moment. I was sent there to intercept a correspondence
between Chalais and the archduke, and even then, when I was discovered
I was nearly torn to pieces. How could I, then, return to Brussels? I
should injure the queen instead of serving her."

"Well, since the best motives are liable to misconstruction, the queen
saw in your refusal nothing but a refusal--a distinct refusal she had
also much to complain of you during the lifetime of the late cardinal;
yes, her majesty the queen----"

Rochefort smiled contemptuously.

"Since I was a faithful servant, my lord, to Cardinal Richelieu during
his life, it stands to reason that now, after his death, I should serve
you well, in defiance of the whole world."

"With regard to myself, Monsieur de Rochefort," replied Mazarin, "I am
not, like Monsieur de Richelieu, all-powerful. I am but a minister, who
wants no servants, being myself nothing but a servant of the queen's.
Now, the queen is of a sensitive nature. Hearing of your refusal to obey
her she looked upon it as a declaration of war, and as she considers you
a man of superior talent, and consequently dangerous, she desired me
to make sure of you; that is the reason of your being shut up in the
Bastile. But your release can be managed. You are one of those men who
can comprehend certain matters and having understood them, can act with
energy----"

"Such was Cardinal Richelieu's opinion, my lord."

"The cardinal," interrupted Mazarin, "was