servants went to the cardinal's kitchen to inquire if there
were any dinner for the king. And look! to-day, this very
day even, when I am twenty-two years of age, -- to-day, when
I have attained the grade of the majority of kings, --
to-day, when I ought to have the key of the treasury, the
direction of the policy, the supremacy in peace and war, --
cast your eyes around me, see how I am left! Look at this
abandonment -- this disdain -- this silence! -- Whilst
yonder -- look yonder! View the bustle, the lights, the
homage! There! -- there you see the real king of France, my
brother!

"In the cardinal's apartments?"

"Yes, in the cardinal's apartments."

"Then I am condemned, sire?"

Louis XIV. made no reply.

"Condemned is the word; for I will never solicit him who
left my mother and sister to die with cold and hunger -- the
daughter and grand-daughter of Henry IV. -- if M. de Retz
and the parliament had not sent them wood and bread."

"To die?" murmured Louis XIV.

"Well!" continued the king of England, "poor Charles II.,
grandson of Henry IV. as you are, sire, having neither
parliament nor Cardinal de Retz to apply to, will die of