answered boldly, raising her clear eyes to mine.
'And therefore that I was not ashamed to beg--even on my knees.'

I fell on mine, and caught her hand before the last word passed her
lips. For the moment I forgot King and Cardinal, prison and the future,
all; all except that this woman, so pure and so beautiful, so far above
me in all things, loved me. For the moment, I say. Then I remembered
myself. I stood up, and stood back from her in a sudden revulsion of
feeling.

'You do not know me!' I cried, 'You do not know what I have done!'

'That is what I do know,' she answered, looking at me with a wondrous
smile.

'Ah! but you do not!' I cried. 'And besides, there is this--this between
us.' And I picked up the Cardinal's letter. It had fallen on the floor.
She turned a shade paler. Then she cried quickly,--

'Open it! open it! It is not sealed nor closed.'

I obeyed mechanically, dreading with a horrible dread what I might see.
Even when I had it open I looked at the finely scrawled characters with
eyes askance. But at last I made it out. And it ran thus:--

'THE KING'S PLEASURE IS THAT M. GIL DE BERAULT, HAVING MIXED HIMSELF UP
IN AFFAIRS OF STATE, RETIRE FORTHWITH TO THE DEMESNE OF COCHEFORET, AND
CONFINE HIMSELF WITHIN ITS LIMITS UNTIL THE KING'S PLEASURE BE FURTHER
KNOWN.

'THE CARDINAL DE RICHELIEU.'

We were married next day, and a fortnight later were at Cocheforet, in
the brown woods under the southern mountains; while the great Cardinal,
once more triumphant over his enemies, saw with cold, smiling eyes the
world pass through his chamber. The flood tide of his prosperity lasted
thirteen years from that time, and ceased only with his death. For the
world had learned its lesson; to this hour they call that day, which saw
me stand alone for all his friends, 'The Day of Dupes.'

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Under the Red Robe, by Stanley Weyman

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