Henrietta Maria and Mazarin.
The cardinal rose, and advanced in haste to receive the queen of England. He showed the more respect to this queen, deprived of every mark of pomp and stripped of followers, as he felt some self-reproach for his own want of heart and his avarice. But supplicants for favor know how to accommodate the expression of their features, and the daughter of Henry IV. smiled as she advanced to meet a man she hated and despised.
"Ah!" said Mazarin to himself, "what a sweet face; does she come to borrow money of me?"
And he threw an uneasy glance at his strong box; he even turned inside the bevel of the magnificent diamond ring, the brilliancy of which drew every eye upon his hand, which indeed was white and handsome.
"Your eminence," said the august visitor, "it was my first intention to speak of the matters that have brought me here to the queen, my sister, but I have reflected that political affairs are more especially the concern of men."
"Madame," said Mazarin, "your majesty overwhelms me with flattering distinction."
"He is very gracious," thought the queen; "can he have guessed my errand?"
"Give," continued the cardinal, "your commands to the most respectful of your servants."
"Alas, sir," replied the queen, "I have lost the habit of commanding and have adopted instead that of making petitions. I am here to petition you, too happy should my prayer be favorably heard."
"I am listening, madame, with the greatest interest," said Mazarin.
"Your eminence, it concerns the war which the king, my husband, is now sustaining against his rebellious subjects.
You are perhaps ignorant that they are fighting in England," added she, with a melancholy smile, "and that in a short time they will fight in a much more decided fashion than they have done hitherto."
"I am completely ignorant of it, madame," said the cardinal, accompanying his words with a slight shrug of the shoulders;
"alas, our own wars quite absorb the time and the mind of a poor, incapable, infirm old minister like me."
"Well, then, your eminence," said the queen, "I must inform you that Charles I., my husband, is on the eve of a decisive engagement. In case of a check" (Mazarin made a slight movement), "one must foresee everything; in the case of a check, he desires to retire into France and to live here as a private individual. What do you say to this project?"
The cardinal had listened without permitting a single fibre of his face to betray what he felt, and his smile remained as it ever was -- false and flattering; and when the queen finished speaking, he said:
"Do you think, madame, that France, agitated and disturbed as it is, would be a safe retreat for a dethroned king? How will the crown, which is scarce firmly set on the head of Louis XIV., support a double weight?"
"The weight was not so heavy when I was in peril," interrupted the queen, with a sad smile, "and I ask no more for my husband than has been done for me; you see that we are very humble monarchs, sir."
"Oh, you, madame," the cardinal hastened to say, in order to cut short the explanation he foresaw was coming, "with regard to you, that is another thing. A daughter of Henry IV., of that great, that sublime sovereign ---- "
"All which does not prevent you refusing hospitality to his son-in-law, sir! Nevertheless, you ought to remember that that great, that sublime monarch, when proscribed at one time, as my husband may be, demanded aid from England and England accorded it to him; and it is but just to say that Queen Elizabeth was not his niece."
"Peccato!" said Mazarin, writhing beneath this simple eloquence, "your majesty does not understand me; you judge my intentions wrongly, and that is partly because, doubtless, I explain myself in French."
"Speak Italian, sir. Ere the cardinal, your predecessor, sent our mother, Marie de Medicis, to die in exile, she taught us that language. If anything yet remains of that great, that sublime king, Henry, of whom you have just spoken, he would be much surprised at so little pity for his family being united to such a profound admiration of himself."
The perspiration stood in large drops on Mazarin's brow.
"That admiration is, on the contrary, so great, so real, madame," returned Mazarin, without noticing the change of language offered to him by the queen, "that if the king, Charles I. -- whom Heaven protect from evil! -- came into France, I would offer him my house -- my own house; but, alas! it would be but an unsafe retreat. Some day the people will burn that house, as they burned that of the Marechal d'Ancre. Poor Concino Concini! And yet he but desired the good of the people."
"Yes, my lord, like yourself!" said the queen, ironically.
Mazarin pretended not to understand the double meaning of his own sentence, but continued to compassionate the fate of Concino Concini.
"Well then, your eminence," said the queen, becoming impatient, "what is your answer?"
"Madame," cried Mazarin, more and more moved, "will your majesty permit me to give you counsel?"
"Speak, sir," replied the queen; "the counsels of so prudent a man as yourself ought certainly to be available."
"Madame, believe me, the king ought to defend himself to the last."
"He has done so, sir, and this last battle, which he encounters with resources much inferior to those of the enemy, proves that he will not yield without a struggle; but in case he is beaten?"
