g could hardly have been in Christian
or in pagan lands. He was one of the most gigantic robbers of the poor
of which history gives any mention.

In the midst of these festivities, Mazarin decided to invite the court
to a grand ballet, which should transcend in splendor every thing
which Paris had witnessed before. To decorate the saloons, a large
amount of costly draperies were manufactured at Milan. In arranging
these tapestries, by some accident they took fire. The flames spread
rapidly, utterly destroying the room, with its paintings and its
magnificently frescoed roof. The fire was eventually extinguished, but
the shock was a death-blow to the cardinal. He was then in feeble
health. His attendants conveyed him from the blazing room to the
Chateau Mazarin.

The terror of the scene so aggravated the maladies from which the
cardinal had for a long time suffered, that he was prostrated upon his
bed, and it soon became evident that his dying hour was near at hand.
There are many indications that the haughty cardinal was tortured by
the pangs of remorse. He was generally silent, though extremely
dejected. His body was subjected to the most extraordinary
convulsions, while inaudible murmurs escaped his lips.

Count de Brienne, in his memoirs, states that, on one occasion, he
entered the chamber of the cardinal on tiptoe, his valet informing him
that his eminence was asleep. He found Mazarin bolstered in an
arm-chair before the fire, apparently in a profound slumber, "and
yet," writes the count, "his body rocked to and fro with the greatest
rapidity, from the back of his chair to his knees, now swinging to the
right, and again to the left. These movements of the sufferer were as
regular and rapid as the vibrations of the pendulum of a clock. At the
same time inarticulate murmurs escaped his lips."

The count, much moved by the wretched spectacle, summoned the
attendant, and awoke the cardinal. Mazarin, in awaking, betrayed that
troubled state of soul which had thus agitated his body. In most
melancholy tones, he said,

"My physician, M. Guenaud, has informed me that I can live but a few
days."

Count de Brienne, wishing to console him, said, "But M. Guenaud is
not omniscient. He may be deceived."

The cardinal, uttering a heavy sigh, exclaimed, "Ah! M. Guenaud well
understands his trade."

Mazarin, as we have mentioned, had acquired enormous wealth. The
resources of the kingdom had been in his hands. The poor ha