“This, then, is all they have been able to do against me during more than two years.  They are poor creatures, truly!  The Duc de Bouillon, whom I thought possessed some ability, has forfeited all claim to my opinion.  I have watched him closely; and I ask you, has he taken one step worthy of a true statesman?  The King, Monsieur, and the rest, have only shown their teeth against me, and without depriving me of one single man.  The young Cinq-Mars is the only man among them who has any consecutiveness of ideas.  All that he has done has been done surprisingly well.  I must do him justice; he had good qualities.  I should have made him my pupil, had it not been for his obstinate character.  But he has here charged me ’a l’outrance, and must take the consequences.  I am sorry for him.  I have left them to float about in open water for the last two years.  I shall now draw the net.”

“It is time, Monseigneur,” said Joseph, who often trembled involuntarily as he spoke.  “Do you bear in mind that from Perpignan to Narbonne the way is short?  Do you know that if your army here is powerful, your own troops are weak and uncertain; that the young nobles are furious; and that the King is not sure?”

The Cardinal looked at the clock.

“It is only half-past eight, Joseph.  I have already told you that I will not talk about this affair until nine.  Meantime, as justice must be done, you will write what I shall dictate, for my memory serves me well.  There are still some objectionable persons left, I see by my notes—­four of the judges of Urbain Grandier.  He was a rare genius, that Urbain Grandier,” he added, with a malicious expression.  Joseph bit his lips.  “All the other judges have died miserably.  As to Houmain, he shall be hanged as a smuggler by and by.  We may leave him alone for the present.  But there is that horrible Lactantius, who lives peacefully, Barre, and Mignon.  Take a pen, and write to the Bishop of Poitiers,

“Monseigneur:  It is his Majesty’s pleasure that Fathers Mignon and Barre be superseded in their cures, and sent with the shortest possible delay to the town of Lyons, with Father Lactantius, Capuchin, to be tried before a special tribunal, charged with criminal intentions against the State.”

Joseph wrote as coolly as a Turk strikes off a head at a sign from his master.  The Cardinal said to him, while signing the letter: 

“I will let you know how I wish them to disappear, for it is important to efface all traces of that affair.  Providence has served me well.  In removing these men, I complete its work.  That is all that posterity shall know of the affair.”

And he read to the Capuchin that page of his memoirs in which he recounts the possession and sorceries of the magician.—­[Collect. des Memoires xxviii. 189.]—­During this slow process, Joseph could not help looking at the clock.

“You are anxious to come to Monsieur le Grand,” said the Cardinal at last.  “Well, then, to please you, let us begin.”