Mazarin bowed his head humbly.  “Yes,” said he, “but the consequences?”

“What consequences?”

“Eh! that damned sin of pride has roots without end.  From the time that I threw myself in that manner between two armies, that I had smelt powder and faced lines of soldiers, I have held generals a little in contempt.”

“Ah!” said the father.

“There is the evil; so that I have not found one endurable since that time.”

“The fact is,” said the Theatin, “that the generals we have had have not been remarkable.”

“Oh!” cried Mazarin, “there was Monsieur le Prince.  I have tormented him thoroughly!”

“He is not much to be pitied:  he has acquired sufficient glory, and sufficient wealth.”

“That may be, for Monsieur le Prince; but M. Beaufort, for example — whom I held suffering so long in the dungeon of Vincennes?”

“Ah! but he was a rebel, and the safety of the state required that you should make a sacrifice.  Pass on!”

“I believe I have exhausted pride.  There is another sin which I am afraid to qualify.”

“I can qualify it myself.  Tell it.”

“A great sin, reverend father!”

“We shall judge, monseigneur.”

“You cannot fail to have heard of certain relations which I have had — with her majesty the queen-mother; — the malevolent — "

“The malevolent, my lord, are fools.  Was it not necessary for the good of the state and the interests of the young king, that you should live in good intelligence with the queen?  Pass on, pass on!”

“I assure you,” said Mazarin, “you remove a terrible weight from my breast.”

“These are all trifles! — look for something serious.”

“I have had much ambition, father.”

“That is the march of great minds and things, my lord.”

“Even the longing for the tiara?”

“To be pope is to be the first of Christians.  Why should you not desire that?”

“It has been printed that, to gain that object, I had sold Cambria to the Spaniards.”

“You have, perhaps, yourself written pamphlets without severely persecuting pamphleteers.”

“Then, reverend father, I have truly a clean breast.  I feel nothing remaining but slight peccadilloes.”

“What are they?”

“Play.”

“That is rather worldly:  but you were obliged by the duties of greatness to keep a good house.”

“I like to win.”

“No player plays to lose.”

“I cheated a little.”

“You took your advantage.  Pass on.”

“Well! reverend father, I feel nothing else upon my conscience.  Give me absolution, and my soul will be able, when God shall please to call it, to mount without obstacle to the throne — "

The Theatin moved neither his arms nor his lips.  “What are you waiting for, father?” said Mazarin.

“I am waiting for the end.”