_Furet._ The cardinal, tho’ he had obtained his desires, yet could not but be sensible that fear, not love, made her consent; therefore doubting she would return to her first amours, or that he should have but little share of her, so contriv’d it, that her husband sent her to a house he had in the cardinal’s diocese, and not far from his palace. This had a very good effect; because the cardinal, for the love of her, resided always in his diocese. Thus did the cardinal and his niece live very lovingly for two or three years; but the intrigues of the court calling the prelate out of the kingdom, ambition stepp’d into the place of love, and put an end to an incestuous commerce, to which the marchioness had first consented, purely in her own defence. _Scar._ I find there are hogs with cardinal caps, as well as mitres. But I believe they are not so numerous; that dignity, perhaps, is a kind of curb to their licentiousness. _Furet._ You mistake the matter, Mr. _Scarron_, inclination never changes; the only reason is, there are more bishops than cardinals, and most of them reside at _Rome_, at glorious _Rome_, which is but one entire stew; _Sodom_ was not what _Rome_ is now. Have you forgot the famous cardinal _Bonzi_? He is as absolute in _Montpelier_, as the grand signior in his seraglio; he needs but beckon to the dame he has a mind to enjoy. The brave cardinal _de Bouillon_, notwithstanding his court intrigues is as well known in all the bawdy-houses of _Paris_, as a young debauch’d musqetteer, or _garde de corps_. The cardinal _de Furstenburg_ too was as wicked as his purse would allow him before I left the town. _Scar._ I verily believe it, Monsieur _l’Abbé_: But pray give me leave to reckon your dignities upon my fingers, that I may not forget them. First, There is your porkers of _Jesus Christ_; then your _mitred hogs_; and lastly, your _purple hogs_. ’Tis wondrous pretty! pray how must we distinguish the Pope, who is chief of this herd? Must we call him the swine-herd? Some of them, ’tis true, were swine-herds before they took the order of priesthood, as _Sixtus Quintus_, who was swine-herd to the village of _Montaste_: But there is another thing that puzzles me worse than all this: you know _Lewis_ XIV. calls himself the eldest son of St. _Peter_, _Lewis the Great_ then, for all his ambition is the son of a swine-herd. Well, I know not how to settle this point; therefore pray continue your history. _Furet._ I’ll make an end of my history, if you are not already glutted with the infamy of the afore-mentioned prelates; with that of the archbishop of _Rheims_. _Scar._ How! Monsieur _l’Abbé_, how! Is he a hog too? I have heard him call’d by some of our new guests a horse. _Furet._ You are in the right of that: the mareschal _de la Feuillade_ was his god-father, and one day honour’d him with the title of coach-horse.