De Blenau was piqued, and lost temper. "Of personal danger, my Lord, I am never afraid," replied he. "But when along with risk to myself is involved danger to my friends, danger to my country, danger to my honour, and danger to my soul," and he returned the Cardinal's glance full as proudly as it had been given, "then, my Lord Cardinal, I would say, it were no cowardice, but true courage to fly from such peril--unless," he added, remembering the folly of opposing the irritable and unscrupulous Minister, and thinking that his words had, perhaps, been already too warm--"unless, indeed, one felt within one's breast the mind of a Richelieu." While De Blenau spoke, the Cardinal's brow knitted into a frown. A flush too came over his cheek; and untying the ribbon which served as a fastening, he took off the velvet cap he generally wore, as if to give himself air. He heard him, however, to the end, and then answered drily, "You speak well, Monsieur de Blenau, and, I doubt not, feel what you say. But am I to understand you, that you refuse to aid us at the Council with your information and advice?" "So far, your Eminence is right," replied the Count, who saw that the storm was now about to break upon his head; "I must, indeed, decline the honours which you offer with so bountiful a hand. But do not suppose that I do so from unwillingness to yield you any information; for, truly, I have none to give. I have never meddled with politics. I have never turned my attention to State affairs; and therefore still less could I yield you any advice. Your Eminence would be woefully disappointed, when you expected to find a man well acquainted with the arts of government, and deep read in the designs of foreign states, to meet with one, whose best knowledge is to range a battalion, or to pierce a boar; a soldier, and not a diplomatist; a hunter, and not a statesman. And as to the government of Poitou, my Lord, its only good would be the emolument, and already my revenues are far more than adequate to my wants." "You refuse my kindness, Sir," replied the Cardinal, with an air of deep determined haughtiness, very different from the urbanity with which he had at first received De Blenau; "I must now speak to you in another tone. And let me warn you to beware of what you say; for be assured, that I already possess sufficient information to confound you if you should prevaricate." "My Lord Cardinal," replied De Blenau, somewhat hastily, "I am not accustomed to prevaricate. Ask any questions you please, and, so long as my honour and my duty go with them, I will answer you." "Then there are questions," said the Cardinal, "that you would think against your duty to answer?" "I said not so, your Eminence," replied De Blenau. "In the examination I find I am to undergo, give my words their full meaning, if you please, but no more than their meaning."