mentioned them to you; but I reproached you secretly; and could anything
have induced me to consent to any proposals contrary to your interest,
it would be this recollection."

There was in this speech that frankness natural to weak minds, who seek
by thus making their ruler uneasy, to compensate for the harm they dare
not do him, and revenge their subjection by a childish controversy.

Richelieu perceived by these words that he had run a great risk; but he
saw at the same time the necessity of venting all his spleen, and, to
facilitate the explosion of these important avowals, he accumulated all
the professions he thought most calculated to provoke the King.

"No, no!" his Majesty at length exclaimed, "I shall believe nothing
until you have explained those two things, which are always in my
thoughts, which were lately mentioned to me, and which I can justify by
no reasoning. I mean the trial of Urbain Grandier, of which I was never
well informed, and the reason for the hatred you bore to my unfortunate
mother, even to her very ashes."

"Is this all, Sire?" said Richelieu. "Are these my only faults?
They are easily explained. The first it was necessary to conceal from
your Majesty because of its horrible and disgusting details of scandal.
There was certainly an art employed, which can not be looked upon as
guilty, in concealing, under the title of 'magic,' crimes the very names
of which are revolting to modesty, the recital of which would have
revealed dangerous mysteries to the innocent; this was a holy deceit
practised to hide these impurities from the eyes of the people."

"Enough, enough, Cardinal," said Louis XIII, turning away his head, and