“You have probably not been forbidden to hear what I desire to say,” exclaimed the Queen, with a burst of her former spirit.

“I confess it, Madame,” conceded the ambassador; “but since I was not commanded to do so, I beg that I may be forgiven should I decline to obey you in the event of your requiring me to make any written communication from yourself to the King my master.”

“Enough!” said Marie de Medicis, with a gesture of impatience.  “Listen.  The afflictions which I have undergone since I took refuge in the Low Countries have inspired me with very different feelings from those with which I left Compiegne.  I beg you to inform the Cardinal that I entreat of him to deliver me from the miserable position in which I now find myself, and from the bitter necessity of soliciting my bread from my sons-in-law.  I desire to be once more near the King.  I do not ask for either power or authority; all that I require is to pass the remainder of my days in peace, and in preparing myself for death.  If the Cardinal cannot obtain the permission of the King for my return to Court, let him at least request that I may be allowed to reside in some city within the kingdom, and be restored to the possession of my revenues.  I offer to dismiss from my household all such individuals as may be obnoxious to his Majesty, and to obey him in all things without comment.  His orders and the advice of the Cardinal shall regulate my conduct.  This is all that I require you to communicate to the latter; as I fear that those to whom I have hitherto addressed myself have been deficient either in courage or in will to perform the errand entrusted to them.”

Bellievre hesitated for a moment.  There was a tearful tremor in the voice of the persecuted Princess which it required all his diplomacy to resist; but he soon rallied.  “Madame,” he replied calmly, “your Majesty shall have no reason to visit the same reproach on me, for it is with extreme regret that I protest my utter inability to serve you on this occasion.”

“I fully comprehend the value of your frankness, M. de Bellievre,” said the Queen-mother, as she raised herself to her full height, and fixed upon him her dark and searching eyes.  “Such is the usual style of ambassadors.  They decline to undertake certain commissions, but they nevertheless report all that has taken place.  I had experience of that fact more than once during my regency.”

Having uttered these biting words, Marie de Medicis turned from the discomfited courtier, and approached the window to which Charles I. and his Queen had retired; followed, however, by Bellievre.

“Your Majesties must permit me,” he said firmly, “to repeat in your presence what I have already declared to the mother of my sovereign.  I dare not undertake the mission with which she desires to honour me.  You will, without doubt, remember, Madame,” he added, turning towards Henriette, whose emotion was uncontrollable, “that you have on several occasions commanded me to write in your name in behalf of the Queen-mother; and that I have always entreated of your Majesty not to insist on my obedience, in consequence of the stringent orders which I have received to avoid all interference in an affair of which the King my master desires to reserve the exclusive management.”