ils; it is even known that the
king has landed at Dover; some fishermen saw him entering the port; the
rest is still a mystery."

"I should like to know the rest," said Philip, impetuously. "You
know,--you, my brother."

Louis XIV. colored again. That was the third time within an hour. "Ask
my lord cardinal," replied he, in a tone which made Mazarin, Anne of
Austria, and everybody else open their eyes.

"That means, my son," said Anne of Austria, laughing, "that the king
does not like affairs of state to be talked of out of the council."

Philip received the reprimand with good grace, and bowed, first smiling
at his brother, and then at his mother. But Mazarin saw from the corner
of his eye that a group was about to be formed in the corner of the
room, and that the Duc d'Anjou, with the Comte de Guiche, and the
Chevalier de Lorraine, prevented from talking aloud, might say, in a
whisper, what it was not convenient should be said. He was beginning,
then, to dart at them glances full of mistrust and uneasiness, inviting
Anne of Austria to throw perturbation in the midst of the unlawful
assembly, when, suddenly, Bernouin, entering from behind the tapestry
of the bedroom, whispered in the ear of Mazarin, "Monseigneur, an envoy
from his majesty, the king of England."

Mazarin could not help exhibiting a slight emotion, which was perceived
by the king. To avoid being indiscreet, rather than to appear useless,
Louis XIV. rose immediately, and approaching his eminence, wished him
good-night. All the assembly had risen with a great noise of rolling of
chairs and tables being pushed away.

"Let everybody depart by degrees," said Mazarin in a whisper to Louis
XIV., "and be so good as to excuse me a few minutes. I am going to
dispatch an affair about which I wish to converse with your majesty this
very evening."

"And the queens?" asked Louis XIV.

"And M. le Duc d'Anjou," said his eminence.

At the same time he turned round in his _ruelle_, the curtains of which,
in falling, concealed the bed. The cardinal, nevertheless, did not lose
sight of the conspirators.

"M. le Comte de Guiche," said he, in a fretful voice, whilst putting on,
behind the curtain, his dressing-gown, with the assistance of Bernouin.

"I am here, my lord," said the young man, as he approached.

"Take my cards, you are lucky. Win a little money for me of these
gentlemen."

"Yes, my lord."

The young man sat down at the table from which the king