“I will answer with my head for his arrest, Sire; but is there not another name to be added?”

“Who—­what—­Cinq-Mars?” inquired the King, hesitating.

“Exactly so, Sire,” answered the Cardinal.

“I see—­but—­I think—­we might—­”

“Hear me!” exclaimed Richelieu, in a voice of thunder; “all must be settled to-day.  Your favorite is mounted at the head of his party; choose between him and me.  Yield up the boy to the man, or the man to the boy; there is no alternative.”

“And what will you do if I consent?” said the King.

“I will have his head and that of his friend.”

“Never! it is impossible!” replied the King, with horror, as he relapsed into the same state of irresolution he evinced when with Cinq-Mars against Richelieu.  “He is my friend as well as you; my heart bleeds at the idea of his death.  Why can you not both agree?  Why this division?  It is that which has led him to this.  You have between you brought me to the brink of despair; you have made me the most miserable of men.”

Louis hid his head in his hands while speaking, and perhaps he shed tears; but the inflexible minister kept his eyes upon him as if watching his prey, and without remorse, without giving the King time for reflection—­on the contrary, profiting by this emotion to speak yet longer.

“And is it thus,” he continued, in a harsh and cold voice, “that you remember the commandments of God communicated to you by the mouth of your confessor?  You told me one day that the Church expressly commanded you to reveal to your prime minister all that you might hear against him; yet I have never heard from you of my intended death!  It was necessary that more faithful friends should apprise me of this conspiracy; that the guilty themselves through the mercy of Providence should themselves make the avowal of their fault.  One only, the most guilty, yet the least of all, still resists, and it is he who has conducted the whole; it is he who would deliver France into the power of the foreigner, who would overthrow in one single day my labors of twenty years.  He would call up the Huguenots of the south, invite to arms all orders of the State, revive crushed pretensions, and, in fact, renew the League which was put down by your father.  It is that—­do not deceive yourself—­it is that which raises so many heads against you.  Are you prepared for the combat?  If so, where are your arms?”

The King, quite overwhelmed, made no reply; he still covered his face with his hands.  The stony-hearted Cardinal crossed his arms and continued: 

“I fear that you imagine it is for myself I speak.  Do you really think that I do not know my own powers, and that I fear such an adversary?  Really, I know not what prevents me from letting you act for yourself—­from transferring the immense burden of State affairs to the shoulders of this youth.  You may imagine that during the twenty years I have been acquainted with your court, I have