"So much the more for my having threatened with the Bastile a certain Bounet, a priest of Avignon, who wanted to publish a genealogy of the Casa Mazarini much too marvelous."
"To be probable?" replied the Theatin.
"Oh! if I had acted up to his idea, father, that would have been the vice of pride--another sin."
"It was an excess of wit, and a person is not to be reproached with such sorts of abuses. Pass on, pass on!"
"I was all pride. Look you, father, I will endeavor to divide that into capital sins."
"I like divisions, when well made."
"I am glad of that. You must know that in 1630--alas! that is thirty-one years ago--"
"You were then twenty-nine years old, monseigneur."
"A hot-headed age. I was then something of a soldier, and I threw myself at Casal into the arquebusades, to show that I rode on horseback as well as an officer. It is true, I restored peace between the French and the Spaniards. That redeems my sin a little."
"I see no sin in being able to ride well on horseback," said the Theatin; "that is in perfect good taste, and does honor to our gown. As a Christian, I approve of your having prevented the effusion of blood; as a monk, I am proud of the bravery a monk has exhibited."
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."