expect me to await your reply?"

"If you do not receive it in ten days you can leave."

Mordaunt bowed.

"That is not all, sir," continued Mazarin; "your private adventures have
touched me to the quick; besides, the letter from Mr. Cromwell makes
you an important person as ambassador; come, tell me, what can I do for
you?"

Mordaunt reflected a moment and, after some hesitation, was about to
speak, when Bernouin entered hastily and bending down to the ear of the
cardinal, whispered:

"My lord, the Queen Henrietta Maria, accompanied by an English noble, is
entering the Palais Royal at this moment."

Mazarin made a bound from his chair, which did not escape the attention
of the young man and suppressed the confidence he was about to make.

"Sir," said the cardinal, "you have heard me? I fix on Boulogne because
I presume that every town in France is indifferent to you; if you prefer
another, name it; but you can easily conceive that, surrounded as I am
by influences I can only muzzle by discretion, I desire your presence in
Paris to be unknown."

"I go, sir," said Mordaunt, advancing a few steps to the door by which
he had entered.

"No, not that way, I beg, sir," quickly exclaimed the cardinal, "be so
good as to pass by yonder gallery, by which you can regain the hall. I
do not wish you to be seen leaving; our interview must be kept secret."

Mordaunt followed Bernouin, who led him through the adjacent chamber and
left him with a doorkeeper, showing him the way out.

38. Henrietta Maria and Mazarin.

The cardinal rose, and advanced in haste to receive the queen of
England. He showed the more respect to this queen, deprived of every
mark of pomp and stripped of followers, as he felt some self-reproach
for his own want of heart and his avarice. But supplicants for favor
know how to accommodate the expression of their features, and the
daughter of Henry IV. smiled as she advanced to meet a man she hated and
despised.

"Ah!" said Mazarin to himself, "what a sweet face; does she come to
borrow money of me?"

And he threw an uneasy glance at his strong box; he even turned inside
the bevel of the magnificent diamond ring, the brilliancy of which drew
every eye upon his hand, which indeed was white and handsome.

"Your eminence," said the august visitor, "it was my first intention to
speak of the matters that have brought me here to the queen, my sister,
but I have reflected that political affairs are