when I ought to have the key of the treasury, the direction of the policy, the supremacy in peace and war, — cast your eyes around me, see how I am left! Look at this abandonment — this disdain — this silence! — Whilst yonder — look yonder! View the bustle, the lights, the homage! There! — there you see the real king of France, my brother!”

“In the cardinal’s apartments?”

“Yes, in the cardinal’s apartments.”

“Then I am condemned, sire?”

Louis XIV. made no reply.

“Condemned is the word; for I will never solicit him who left my mother and sister to die with cold and hunger — the daughter and grand-daughter of Henry IV. —