"Look there, De Beaumont," said she: "something is not right. I have seen more than one of these creatures of the Cardinal hanging about the Park to-day. I fear for poor De Blenau. He has been too faithful to his Queen to escape long." "I salute your Majesty," said Chavigni, as soon as they had come within a short distance of the Queen, and not giving De Blenau the time to address her: "I have been the bearer of a message from his Eminence of Richelieu to Monsieur de Blenau, your Majesty's Chamberlain, requesting the pleasure of entertaining him for a day in Paris. The Count has kindly accepted the invitation; and I have promised that the Cardinal shall not press his stay beyond to-morrow. We only now want your Majesty's permission and good leave, which in his Eminence's name I humbly crave for Monsieur de Blenau." "His Eminence is too condescending," replied the Queen. "He knows that his will is law; and we, humble Kings and Queens, as in duty, do him reverence. I doubt not that his intentions towards our Chamberlain are as mild and amiable, as his general conduct towards our self." "The truth is, your Majesty," said De Blenau, "the Cardinal has sent for me, and (however Monsieur de Chavigni's politeness may colour it) in a way that compels my attendance." "I thought so," exclaimed the Queen, dropping the tone of irony which she had assumed towards Chavigni, and looking with mingled grief and kindness upon the young Cavalier, whose destruction she deemed inevitable from the moment that Richelieu had fixed the serpent eyes of his policy upon him--"I thought so. Alas, my poor De Blenau! all that attach themselves to me seem devoted to persecution." "Not so, your Majesty," said Chavigni, with some degree of feeling; "I can assure you, Monsieur de Blenau goes at perfect liberty. He is under no arrest; and, unless he stays by his own wish, will return to your Majesty's court to-morrow night. The Cardinal is far from wishing to give unnecessary pain." "Talk not to me, Sir Counsellor," replied the Queen, angrily: "Do I not know him? I, who of all the world have best cause to estimate his baseness? Have I not under his own hand, the proof of his criminal ambition? but no more of that--" And breaking off into Spanish, as was frequently her custom when angry, she continued, "No sè si es la misma vanidad, la sobervia, ó la arrogancia. Que todo esto, segun creo es el Cardenal." "It is useless, Madam," said De Blenau, as soon as the Queen paused in her angry vituperation of the Minister, "to distress you farther with this conversation. I know not what the Cardinal wants, but he may rest assured that De Blenau's heart is firm, and that no human means shall induce him to swerve from his duty; and thus I humbly take my leave."