be angry with me! It is certainly not your
eminence's word I place in doubt, God forbid!"

"What then?"

"It is the carefulness of your chancery, my lord. What is a letter? A
rag. May not a rag be forgotten? And look, my lord, look if I was not
right. Your clerks have forgotten the rag; the letter is not in the
packet."

"You are an insolent fellow, and you have not looked," cried Mazarin,
very angrily; "begone and wait my pleasure." Whilst saying these words,
with perfectly Italian subtlety he snatched the packet from the hands of
Colbert, and re-entered his apartments.

But this anger could not last so long as to be replaced in time by
reason. Mazarin, every morning, on opening his closet door, found
the figure of Colbert like a sentinel behind the bench, and this
disagreeable figure never failed to ask him humbly, but with tenacity,
for the queen-mother's letter. Mazarin could hold out no longer, and
was obliged to give it up. He accompanied this restitution with a most
severe reprimand, during which Colbert contented himself with examining,
feeling, even smelling, as it were, the paper, the characters, and
the signature, neither more nor less than if he had to deal with the
greatest forger in the kingdom. Mazarin behaved still more rudely to
him, but Colbert, still impassible, having obtained a certainty that the
letter was the true one, went off as if he had been deaf. This conduct
obtained for him afterwards the post of Joubert; for Mazarin, instead
of bearing malice, admired him, and was desirous of attaching so much
fidelity to himself.

It may be judged by this single anecdote, what the character of Colbert
was. Events, developing themselves, by degrees allowed all the powers of
his mind to act freely. Colbert was not long in insinuating himself to
the good graces of the cardinal: he became even indispensable to him.
The clerk was acquainted with all his accounts without the cardinal's
ever having spoken to him about them. This secret between them was a
powerful tie, and this was why, when about to appear before the Master
of another world, Mazarin was desirous of taking good counsel in
disposing the wealth he was so unwillingly obliged to leave in this
world. After the visit of Guenaud, he therefore sent for Colbert,
desired him to sit down, and said to him: "Let us converse, Monsieur
Colbert, and seriously, for I am very ill, and I may chance to die."

"Man is mortal," replied Colbert.

"I have alway