design; the great nobility will leave and lose their lands, and, ceasing
to be great proprietors, they will cease to be a great power. The court
is already no more than a palace where people beg; by and by it will
become an antechamber, when it will be composed only of those who
constitute the suite of the King. Great names will begin by ennobling
vile offices; but, by a terrible reaction, those offices will end by
rendering great names vile. Estranged from their homes, the nobility
will be dependent upon the employments which they shall have received;
and if the people, over whom they will no longer have any influence,
choose to revolt--"

"How gloomy you are to-day, Marechal!" interrupted the Marquise; "I hope
that neither I nor my children will ever see that time. I no longer
perceive your cheerful disposition, now that you talk like a politician.
I expected to hear you give advice to my son. Henri, what troubles you?
You seem very absent."

Cinq-Mars, with eyes fixed upon the, great bay window of the dining-room,
looked sorrowfully upon the magnificent landscape. The sun shone in full
splendor, and colored the sands of the Loire, the trees, and the lawns
with gold and emerald. The sky was azure, the waves were of a
transparent yellow, the islets of a vivid green; behind their rounded
outlines rose the great sails of the merchant-vessels, like a fleet in
ambuscade.

"O Nature, Nature!" he mused; "beautiful Nature, farewell! Soon will my
heart cease to be of simplicity enough to feel your charm, soon you wall
no longer please my eyes. This heart is already burned by a deep
passion; and the mention of the interests of men stirs it with hitherto
unknown agitation. I must, however, enter this labyrinth; I may,