"Still, life at court must have its pinches, since his Majesty sleeps
between ragged sheets. What kind of money-chest does this Mazarin
possess that, engulfing all the revenues of France, the gold never
reaches high enough to be taken out again?"
"With all his faults, Mazarin is a great minister. He is a better
financier than Richelieu was. He is husbanding. Louis XIV will become
a great king whenever Mazarin dies. We who live shall see. Louis is
simply repressed. He will burst forth all the more quickly when the
time comes."
"Is it true that her Majesty is at times attacked by a strange malady?"
"A cancer has been discovered growing in her breast."
Du Puys opened his commission and ran over it. He studied the lean,
slanting chirography of the prime minister and stroked his grizzled
chin. His thought went back to the days when the handsome Buckingham
threw his pearls into an admiring crowd. "Woman and the world's end,"
he mused. "Who will solve them?"
"Who indeed!" echoed Victor, resting his chin on the knuckles of his
hand. "Monsieur, you have heard of the Chevalier du Cévennes?"
"Aye; recently dismissed from court, stripped of his honors, and exiled
in disgrace."
"I am here to command his immediate return to Paris," and De Saumaise
blinked moodily at the fire.
"And what brought about this good fortune?"
"His innocence and another man's honesty."
"Ah!"
"Monsieur, you are a man of experience; are there not times when the
best of us are unable to surmount temptation?"
"Only his Holiness is infallible."
"The Chevalier was unjustly exiled for a crime he knew nothing about.
He suffered all this ignominy to save a comrade in arms, whom he
believed to be guilty, but who was as innocent as himself. Only a week
ago this comrade became aware of what had happened. Even had he been
guilty he would not have made profit from his friend's generosity. It
was fine of the chevalier; do you not agree with me?"
"Then the Chevalier is not all bad?" said Du Puys.
"No. But he is the son of his father. You have met the Marquis de
Périgny?"
"Only to pass him on the streets. But here comes the host with the
punch. What shall the toast be?"
"New France."
"My compliments on your good taste."
And they bowed gravely to each other, drinking in silence. The youth
renewed his gaze at the fire, this time attracted by the chimney soot
as it wavered above the springing flames, now incandescent, now black
as jet, now tearing itself from the brick and flying heavenward.
Sometimes the low, fierce music of the storm could be heard in the
chimney. Du Puys, glancing over the lid of his pewter pot, observed
the young man kindly.