dismissed the nurse, who closed the door as she went out. Colbert remained modestly standing near that door.

“What do you come to announce to me, monsieur?” said Louis, very much troubled at being thus surprised in his private thoughts, which he could not completely conceal.

“That monsieur le cardinal has just expired, sire; and that I bring your majesty his last adieu.”

The king remained pensive for a minute; and during that minute he looked attentively at Colbert; — it was evident that the cardinal’s last words were in his mind. “Are you, then, M. Colbert?” asked he.

“Yes, sire.”

“His faithful servant, as his eminence himself told me?”