The cardinal bowed. "I have always, since I had the fortune to
receive them, carried with me the dear, and to me invaluable,
letters of the queen. On the day when I was arrested in Versailles,
they lay in my breast coat-pocket. It was my fortune, and the
misfortune of those who, after I had been carried to the Bastile,
burst into my palace, sealed my papers, and at once burned what
displeased them. In this way these letters escaped the auto-da-fe.
Here is the first letter of the queen."

He drew a pocket-book from his robe, took from it a small folded
paper, and laid it upon the table before the president.

The president opened it and read: "I have received your brief, and
am delighted to find you no longer culpable; in the mean while, I am
sorry not to be able to give you the audience which you ask. As
soon, however, as circumstances allow me, I shall inform you; till
then, silence. Marie Antoinette of France." [Footnote: Goncourt.--
"Histoire de Marie Antoinette," p. 143.]

A murmur of astonishment arose among the judges after this reading,
and all looks were directed with deep sympathy to the cardinal, who,
with a quiet, modest bearing, stood over against them. The glances
of the president of the high court, directed themselves, after he
had read the letter and laid it upon the green table, to the great
dignitary of the Church, and then he seemed to notice for the first
time that the cardinal, a prince and grand almoner of the King of
Prance, was standing like a common criminal.

"Give the lord cardinal an arm-chair," he ordered, with a loud