"Well, tell me. I shall be glad to know how far you are admitted into the secrets of the Spanish cabinet."
"When the regent is got rid of," said Gaston, without noticing the slight start which his interlocutor gave at these words, "the Duc de Maine will be provisionally recognized in his place. The Duc de Maine will at once break the treaty of the quadruple alliance signed by that wretch Dubois."
"I wish La Jonquiere had been here to hear you speak thus; it would have pleased him. Go on, monsieur."
"The pretender will start with a fleet for the English shore; Prussia, Sweden, and Russia will then be engaged with Holland; the empire will profit by this war to retake Naples and Sicily, to which it lays claim through the house of Suabia; the Grand Duchy of Tuscany will be assured to the second son of the king of Spain, the Catholic low countries will be re-united to France, Sardinia given to the Duke of Savoy, Commachio to the pope. France will be the soul of the great league of the south against the north, and, if Louis XV. dies, Philip V. will be crowned king of half the world."
"Yes, I know all that," said the regent, "and this is Cellamare's conspiracy renewed. But you used a phrase I did not understand."
"Which, monseigneur?"
"You said, when the regent is got rid of. How is he to be got rid of?"
"The old plan was, as you know, to carry him off to the prison of Saragossa, or the fortress of Toledo."
"Yes; and the plan failed through the duke's watchfulness."
"It was impracticable—a thousand obstacles opposed it. How was it possible to take such a prisoner across France?"