“Oh, sir, your words and appearance bring to me dreams of my youth. It is ten years since I saw you.”
“Yes; but if you are no longer a fine young man, you are a prince. Do you remember the day when, in my cabinet, I promised you the love of the woman whose fair locks I consulted?”
The cardinal turned from pale to red. Terror and joy almost stopped the beating of his heart.
“I remember,” said he.
“Ah, let me try if I can still play the magician. This fair child of your dreams——”
“What is she doing now?”
“Ah, I suspect you yourself have seen her to-day; indeed, you have not long left her.”
The cardinal could hardly stand.
“Oh, I beg, sir——” he cried.
“Let us speak of something else,” said Cagliostro, sitting down.