“Yes, sire,” said Marie Antoinette; “this is the way he speaks to me, and pretends he has the right to do so.”
“You, sir!” cried the king, livid with rage.
“Oh! he says he has letters——”
“Let us see them, sir,” said the king.
“Yes, produce them,” cried the queen.
The cardinal passed his hands over his burning eyes, and asked himself how heaven could ever have created a being so perfidious and so audacious; but he remained silent.
“But that is not all,” continued the queen, getting more and more excited: “M. le Cardinal says he has obtained interviews——”
“Madame, for pity’s sake,” cried the king.
“For modesty’s sake,” murmured the cardinal.
“One word, sir. If you are not the basest of men; if you hold anything sacred in this world; if you have proofs, produce them.”