“If there be anything else, ask it, sire; I shall most happy to grant it to you, having refused this.”

“Anything else, my lord?”

“Why yes; am I not devoted body and soul to your majesty? Hola! Bernouin! — lights and guards for his majesty! His majesty is returning to his own chamber.”

“Not yet, monsieur: since you place your good-will at my disposal, I will take advantage of it.”

“For yourself, sire?” asked the cardinal, hoping that his niece was at length about to be named.

“No, monsieur, not for myself,” replied Louis, “but still for my brother Charles.”

The brow of Mazarin again became clouded, and he grumbled a few words that the king could not catch.