"More than that."
"A secret ambassador!"
"Higher still."
"Stop—King Philip III. of Spain is a bigot. He is, perhaps, the confessor of Philip III."
"You must go much higher than that."
"Mordieu!" cried Colbert, who forgot himself so far as to swear in the presence of this great lady, of this old friend of the queen-mother—of the Duchesse de Chevreuse, in short. "He must then be the general of the Jesuits?"
"I believe you have guessed at last," replied the duchesse.
"Ah! then, madame, this man will ruin us all if we do not ruin him; and we must make haste to do it, too."
"That was my opinion, monsieur, but I did not dare to give it you."
"And it is fortunate for us that he has attacked the throne, and not us."