“The Duc de Rohan is dead, that is good news; the Huguenots are ruined.  He is a lucky man.  I had him condemned by the Parliament of Toulouse to be torn in pieces by four horses, and here he dies quietly on the battlefield of Rheinfeld.  But what matters?  The result is the same.  Another great head is laid low!  How they have fallen since that of Montmorency!  I now see hardly any that do not bow before me.  We have already punished almost all our dupes of Versailles; assuredly they have nothing with which to reproach me.  I simply exercise against them the law of retaliation, treating them as they would have treated me in the council of the Queen-mother.  The old dotard Bassompierre shall be doomed for perpetual imprisonment, and so shall the assassin Marechal de Vitry, for that was the punishment they voted me.  As for Marillac, who counselled death, I reserve death for him at the first false step he makes, and I beg thee, Joseph, to remind me of him; we must be just to all.  The Duc de Bouillon still keeps up his head proudly on account of his Sedan, but I shall make him yield.  Their blindness is truly marvellous!  They think themselves all free to conspire, not perceiving that they are merely fluttering at the ends of the threads that I hold in my hand, and which I lengthen now and then to give them air and space.  Did the Huguenots cry out as one man at the death of their dear duke?”

“Less so than at the affair of Loudun, which is happily concluded.”

“What!  Happily?  I hope that Grandier is dead?”

“Yes; that is what I meant.  Your Eminence may be fully satisfied.  All was settled in twenty-four hours.  He is no longer thought of.  Only Laubardemont committed a slight blunder in making the trial public.  This caused a little tumult; but we have a description of the rioters, and measures have been taken to seek them out.”

“This is well, very well.  Urbain was too superior a man to be left there; he was turning Protestant.  I would wager that he would have ended by abjuring.  His work against the celibacy of priests made me conjecture this; and in cases of doubt, remember, Joseph, it is always best to cut the tree before the fruit is gathered.  These Huguenots, you see, form a regular republic in the State.  If once they had a majority in France, the monarchy would be lost, and they would establish some popular government which might be durable.”

“And what deep pain do they daily cause our holy Father the Pope!” said Joseph.

“Ah,” interrupted the Cardinal, “I see; thou wouldst remind me of his obstinacy in not giving thee the hat.  Be tranquil; I will speak to-day on the subject to the new ambassador we are sending, the Marechal d’Estrees, and he will, on his arrival, doubtless obtain that which has been in train these two years—­thy nomination to the cardinalate.  I myself begin to think that the purple would become thee well, for it does not show blood-stains.”