the official despatches made by his able spies. All the despatches to
the King passed through his hands, and were carefully revised so as to
reach the King amended to the state in which he wished him to read them.
The private notes were all carefully burned by the monk after the
Cardinal had ascertained their contents. The latter, however, seemed by
no means satisfied, and he was walking quickly to and fro with gestures
expressive of anxiety, when the door opened, and a thirteenth courier
entered. This one seemed a boy hardly fourteen years old; he held under
his arm a packet sealed with black for the King, and gave to the Cardinal
only a small letter, of which a stolen glance from Joseph could collect
but four words. The Cardinal started, tore the billet into a thousand
pieces, and, bending down to the ear of the boy, spoke to him for a long
time; all that Joseph heard was, as the messenger went out:

"Take good heed to this; not until twelve hours from this time."

During this aside of the Cardinal, Joseph was occupied in concealing an
infinite number of libels from Flanders and Germany, which the minister
always insisted upon seeing, however bitter they might be to him. In
this respect, he affected a philosophy which he was far from possessing,
and to deceive those around him he would sometimes pretend that his
enemies were not wholly wrong, and would outwardly laugh at their
pleasantries; but those who knew his character better detected bitter
rage lurking under this apparent moderation, and knew that he was never
satisfied until he had got the hostile book condemned by the parliament
to be burned in the Place de Greve, as "injurious to the King, in the
person of his minister, the most illustrious Cardinal," as we read in the
decrees of the time, and that his only regret was that the author was not
in the place of his book--a satisfaction he gave himself whenever he
could, as in the case of Urbain Grandier.