"If there be anything else, ask it, sire; I shall most happy to grant it
to you, having refused this."

"Anything else, my lord?"

"Why yes; am I not devoted body and soul to your majesty? _Hola!_
Bernouin! - lights and guards for his majesty! His majesty is returning
to his own chamber."

"Not yet, monsieur: since you place your good-will at my disposal, I will
take advantage of it."

"For yourself, sire?" asked the cardinal, hoping that his niece was at
length about to be named.

"No, monsieur, not for myself," replied Louis, "but still for my brother
Charles."

The brow of Mazarin again became clouded, and he grumbled a few words
that the king could not catch.


Chapter XI:
Mazarin's Policy.

Instead of the hesitation with which he had accosted the cardinal a
quarter of an hour before, there might be read in the eyes of the young
king that will against which a struggle might be maintained, and which
might be crushed by its own impotence, but which, at least, would