door, with his eyes fixed upon the
dying man, who did not even think it worth while to notice that majesty
from whom he thought he had nothing more to expect. An usher placed
an armchair close to the bed. Louis bowed to his mother, then to the
cardinal, and sat down. The queen took a seat in her turn.

Then, as the king looked behind him, the usher understood that look, and
made a sign to the courtiers who filled up the doorway to go out,
which they instantly did. Silence fell upon the chamber with the velvet
curtains. The king, still very young, and very timid in the presence of
him who had been his master from his birth, still respected him much,
particularly now, in the supreme majesty of death. He did not dare,
therefore, to begin the conversation, feeling that every word must have
its weight not only upon things of this world, but of the next. As to
the cardinal, at that moment he had but one thought--his donation. It
was not physical pain which gave him that air of despondency, and that
lugubrious look; it was the expectation of the thanks that were about
to issue from the king's mouth, and cut off all hope of restitution.
Mazarin was the first to break the silence. "Is your majesty come to
make any stay at Vincennes?" said he.

Louis made an affirmative sign with his head.

"That is a gracious favor," continued Mazarin, "granted to a dying man,
and which will render death less painful to him."

"I hope," replied the king, "I am come to visit, not a dying man, but a
sick man, susceptible of cure."

Mazarin replied by a movement of the head.

"Your majesty is very kind; but I know more than you on that subject.
The last visit, sire," said he, "the last visit."

"If it were so, monsieur le cardinal," said Louis, "I would come a last
time to ask the counsels of a guide to whom I owe everything."

Anne of Austria was a woman; she could not restrain her tears. Louis
showed himself much affected, and Mazarin still more than his two
guests, but from very different motives. Here the silence returned. The
queen wiped her eyes, and the king resumed his firmness.

"I was saying," continued the king, "that I owed much to your eminence."
The eyes of the cardinal had devoured the king, for he felt the great
moment had come. "And," continued Louis, "the principal object of my
visit was to offer you very sincere thanks for the last evidence of
friendship you have kindly sent me."

The cheeks of the cardinal became sunk