a run.

Ten minutes later I stood in the presence of the most feared and hated man
in France.

"Cospetto!" cried Mazarin as I entered his cabinet. "Have you swum the
Seine in your clothes?"

"No, your Eminence, but I have been serving you in the rain for the past
hour."

He smiled that peculiar smile of his that rendered hateful his otherwise
not ill-favoured countenance. It was a smile of the lips in which the eyes
had no part.

"Yes," he said slowly, "I have heard of your achievements."

"You have heard?" I ejaculated, amazed by the powers which this man
wielded.

"Yes, I have heard. You are a brave man, M. de Luynes."

"Pshaw, your Eminence!" I deprecated; "the poor are always brave. They
have naught to lose but their life, and that is not so sweet to them that
they lay much store by it. Howbeit, Monseigneur, your wishes have been
carried out. There will be no duel at St. Germain this evening."

"Will there not? Hum! I am not so confident. You are a brave man, M. de
Luynes, but you lack that great auxiliary of valour--discretion. What need
to fling into the teeth of those fine gentlemen the reason you had for