"Your Majesty was very good in sending me such an angel of comfort," replied De Blenau. "And certainly, had it not been for the commands she brought me, I believe that his most Christian-like Eminence of Richelieu would have doomed me to the torture for my obstinacy." "Put it in other words, De Blenau," said Anne of Austria. "You mean that you would have endured the torture sooner than betray your Queen. But truly, Pauline must have a stout heart to have carried through such an undertaking; and I think that the fidelity and attachment which you have both shown to me, offers a fair promise for your conduct towards each other. What say you, Madame de Beaumont?" "I think, Madame," replied the Marchioness, "that Pauline has done her duty with more firmness than most girls could have commanded; and that De Blenau has done his as well as it could be done." "Pauline merits more praise than her mother ventures to give," said the Queen. "But I had forgot the King's summons; and probably he is even now waiting for us. Come, Pauline; come, De Blenau. Louis gives high commendation to your demeanour in prison; let us see how he greets you out of it." A message had been conveyed to Anne of Austria, just before the arrival of De Blenau, intimating that the King desired to see her; and she now led the way to the _Salle Ronde_, as it was then called, or the _Salle des Muses_, as it was afterwards named by Louis the Fourteenth, where the King waited her approach. Although the uncertain nature of Louis's temper always made her feel some degree of apprehension when summoned to his presence, the kindness he had lately shown her, and the presence of a large proportion of her friends, made her obey his call with more pleasure than she usually felt on similar occasions. Louis's object, in the present instance, was to inform the Queen of the journey he was about to make into the neighbourhood of Perpignan, in order to confirm the inhabitants of Roussillon in their new allegiance to the crown of France; and Cinq Mars, who had always sincerely wished the welfare of Anne of Austria, took this opportunity of insinuating to the King, that to show publicly his restored confidence in the Queen, so far from lessening his authority, even in appearance, would be in truth only asserting his own dignity, from which the proceedings of Richelieu had so greatly derogated.