“Oh!” cried Mazarin, “there was Monsieur le Prince. I have tormented him thoroughly!”
“He is not much to be pitied: he has acquired sufficient glory, and sufficient wealth.”
“That may be, for Monsieur le Prince; but M. Beaufort, for example—whom I held suffering so long in the dungeon of Vincennes?”
“Ah! but he was a rebel, and the safety of the state required that you should make a sacrifice. Pass on!”
“I believe I have exhausted pride. There is another sin which I am afraid to qualify.”
“I can qualify it myself. Tell it.”
“A great sin, reverend father!”
“We shall judge, monseigneur.”
“You cannot fail to have heard of certain relations which I have had—with her majesty the queen-mother;—the malevolent—”
“The malevolent, my lord, are fools. Was it not necessary for the good of the state and the interests of the young king, that you should live in good intelligence with the queen? Pass on, pass on!”