"He knew it, then? You confess it," said Joseph, triumphantly; "you have not said as much before."
"O Heaven, what have I done!" gasped Cinq-Mars, hiding his face.
"Calm yourself; he is saved, notwithstanding this avowal, if you accept my offer."
D'Effiat remained silent for a short time.
The Capuchin continued:
"Save your friend. The King's favor awaits you, and perhaps the love which has erred for a moment."
"Man, or whatever else thou art, if thou hast in thee anything resembling a heart," answered the prisoner, "save him! He is the purest of created beings; but convey him far away while yet he sleeps, for should he awake, thy endeavors would be vain."
"What good will that do me?" said the Capuchin, laughing. "It is you and your favor that I want."
The impetuous Cinq-Mars rose, and, seizing Joseph by the arm, eying him with a terrible look, said:
"I degraded him in interceding with thee for him." He continued, raising the tapestry which separated his apartment from that of his friend, "Come, and doubt, if thou canst, devotion and the immortality of the soul. Compare the uneasiness and misery of thy triumph with the calmness of our defeat, the meanness of thy reign with the grandeur of our captivity, thy sanguinary vigils to the slumbers of the just."