Public curiosity was still rife when I accompanied my good master Monsieur Jérôme Coignard to Monsieur Blaizot’s, who, as you know, is a bookseller in the Rue St. Jacques, at the sign of the _Image de Sainte Catherine_. In the shop we found Monsieur Gentil, private secretary to one of the ministers of State, whose face was hidden in a book newly come from Holland, and the celebrated Monsieur Roman, who has treated of systems of State in various estimable works. Old Monsieur Blaizot was reading his paper behind the counter. Monsieur Jérôme Coignard, always avid of news, slid up to him to glean what he could across his shoulder. This man, learned and of so rare a genius, owned nothing of the goods of this world, and when he had drunk his pint at the _Petit Bacchus_ he had not a halfpenny left in his pockets to buy a news-sheet. Having read the depositions of Madame de la Morangère over Monsieur Blaizot’s shoulder, he cried out that it was well, and that it pleased him to see wickedness topple from its high seat under the weak hand of woman, as in wonderful examples witnessed to in Holy Writ. “This lady,” he added, “although allied with public men of whom I do not approve, may be likened unto those strong women lauded in the Book of Kings. She pleases by an uncommon mixture of straightforwardness and finesse, and I applaud her telling victory.” Monsieur Roman interrupted him: “Take care, Monsieur l’Abbé,” said he, stretching out his arm, “take care how you look at this affair from an individual and personal point of view, without troubling yourself as you should do with the public interests that are bound up in it. There are reasons of State in all this, and it is clear that this supreme reason demanded that Madame de la Morangère should not speak, or that her words should not find credence.” Monsieur Gentil lifted his nose from his book. “The importance of this incident,” said he, “has been much exaggerated.” “Ah, Mr. Secretary,” retorted Monsieur Roman, “we cannot believe that an incident that will lose you your place can be without importance. For you will fall by it, sir, you and your master. For my part, I am full of regrets. But what consoles me for the fall of the Ministry now reeling under the shock is that they were powerless to prevent it.” Monsieur Gentil made us understand by a slight wink that on this point he saw eye to eye with Monsieur Roman. The latter continued: “The State is like the human body—all the functions it accomplishes are not noble. Some there are indeed that one must needs hide, I may say the most necessary.” “Ah, Monsieur,” said the Abbé, “was it then necessary that Monsieur Lescot should so behave to the unfortunate wife of a prisoner? It was infamous!”