more especially the
concern of men."

"Madame," said Mazarin, "your majesty overwhelms me with flattering
distinction."

"He is very gracious," thought the queen; "can he have guessed my
errand?"

"Give," continued the cardinal, "your commands to the most respectful of
your servants."

"Alas, sir," replied the queen, "I have lost the habit of commanding
and have adopted instead that of making petitions. I am here to petition
you, too happy should my prayer be favorably heard."

"I am listening, madame, with the greatest interest," said Mazarin.

"Your eminence, it concerns the war which the king, my husband, is now
sustaining against his rebellious subjects. You are perhaps ignorant
that they are fighting in England," added she, with a melancholy smile,
"and that in a short time they will fight in a much more decided fashion
than they have done hitherto."

"I am completely ignorant of it, madame," said the cardinal,
accompanying his words with a slight shrug of the shoulders; "alas, our
own wars quite absorb the time and the mind of a poor, incapable, infirm
old minister like me."

"Well, then, your eminence," said the queen, "I must inform you that
Charles I., my husband, is on the eve of a decisive engagement. In
case of a check" (Mazarin made a slight movement), "one must foresee
everything; in the case of a check, he desires to retire into France and
to live here as a private individual. What do you say to this project?"

The cardinal had listened without permitting a single fibre of his face
to betray what he felt, and his smile remained as it ever was--false and
flattering; and when the queen finished speaking, he said:

"Do you think, madame, that France, agitated and disturbed as it is,
would be a safe retreat for a dethroned king? How will the crown,
which is scarce firmly set on the head of Louis XIV., support a double
weight?"

"The weight was not so heavy when I was in peril," interrupted the
queen, with a sad smile, "and I ask no more for my husband than has been
done for me; you see that we are very humble monarchs, sir."

"Oh, you, madame," the cardinal hastened to say, in order to cut short
the explanation he foresaw was coming, "with regard to you, that is
another thing. A daughter of Henry IV., of that great, that sublime
sovereign----"

"All which does not prevent you refusing hospitality to his son-in-law,
sir! Nevertheless, you ought to remember that that great, that sublime
monar