“Why,” interrupted Mazarin, without any regard for the king’s pride—“does not your majesty know that it is to M. Monk?” “I ought to know it,” replied Louis XIV., resolutely; “and yet I ask my lord ambassador the causes of the change in this General Monk?” “And your majesty touches precisely the question,” replied Athos, “for without the miracle of which I have had the honor to speak, General Monk would probably have remained an implacable enemy of Charles II. God willed that a strange, bold, and ingenious idea should enter into the mind of a certain man, whilst a devoted and courageous idea took possession of the mind of another man. The combinations of these two ideas brought about such a change in the position of M. Monk, that, from an inveterate enemy, he became a friend to the deposed king.” “These are exactly the details I asked for,” said the king. “Who and what are the two men of whom you speak?” “Two Frenchmen, sire.” “Indeed! I am glad of that.” “And the two ideas,” said Mazarin;—“I am more curious about ideas than about men, for my part.” “Yes,” murmured the king. “The second idea, the devoted, reasonable idea—the least important, sir—was to go and dig up a million in gold, buried by King Charles I. at Newcastle, and to purchase with that gold the adherence of Monk.” “Oh, oh!” said Mazarin, reanimated by the word million. “But Newcastle was at the time occupied by Monk.” “Yes, monsieur le cardinal, and that is why I venture to call the idea courageous as well as devoted. It was necessary, if Monk refused the offers of the negotiator, to reinstate King Charles II. in possession of this million, which was to be torn, as it were, from the loyalty and not the royalism of General Monk. This was effected in spite of many difficulties: the general proved to be loyal, and allowed the money to be taken away.” “It seems to me,” said the timid, thoughtful king, “that Charles II. could not have known of this million whilst he was in Paris.” “It seems to me,” rejoined the cardinal, maliciously, “that his majesty the king of Great Britain knew perfectly well of this million, but that he preferred having two millions to having one.” “Sire,” said Athos, firmly, “the king of England, whilst in France, was so poor that he had not even money to take the post; so destitute of hope that he frequently thought of dying. He was so entirely ignorant of the existence of the million at Newcastle, that but for a gentleman—one of your majesty’s subjects—the moral depositary of the million, who revealed the secret to King Charles II., that prince would still be vegetating in the most cruel forgetfulness.” “Let us pass on to the strange, bold and ingenious idea,” interrupted Mazarin, whose sagacity foresaw a check. “What was that idea?” “This—M. Monk formed the only obstacle to the re-establishment of the fallen king. A Frenchman imagined the idea of suppressing this obstacle.”