“But in what terms did he express this desire? Tell me his precise words.”
“He said publicly; and in the presence of Monsieur: ‘I feel that one of the first duties of a Christian is to be a good son, and I will resist no longer the murmurs of my conscience.’”
“Christian! conscience! these are not his expressions. It is Father Caussin—it is his confessor who is betraying me,” cried the Cardinal. “Perfidious Jesuit! I pardoned thee thy intrigue with La Fayette; but I will not pass over thy secret counsels. I will have this confessor dismissed, Joseph; he is an enemy to the State, I see it clearly. But I myself have acted with negligence for some days past; I have not sufficiently hastened the arrival of the young d’Effiat, who will doubtless succeed. He is handsome and intellectual, they say. What a blunder! I myself merit disgrace. To leave that fox of a Jesuit with the King, without having given him my secret instructions, without a hostage, a pledge, or his fidelity to my orders! What neglect! Joseph, take a pen, and write what I shall dictate for the other confessor, whom we will choose better. I think of Father Sirmond.”
Father Joseph sat down at the large table, ready to write, and the Cardinal dictated to him those duties, of a new kind, which shortly afterward he dared to have given to the King, who received them, respected them, and learned them by heart as the commandments of the Church. They have come down to us, a terrible monument of the empire that a man may seize upon by means of circumstances, intrigues, and audacity:
“I. A prince should have a prime minister, and that minister three
qualities: (1) He should have no passion but for his prince; (2) He
should be able and faithful; (3) He should be an ecclesiastic.
“II. A prince ought perfectly to love his prime minister.
“III. Ought never to change his prime minister.
“IV. Ought to tell him all things.
“V. To give him free access to his person.
“VI. To give him sovereign authority over his people.
“VII. Great honors and large possessions.
“VIII. A prince has no treasure more precious than his prime
minister.
“IX. A prince should not put faith in what people say against his
prime minister, nor listen to any such slanders.
“X. A prince should reveal to his prime minister all that is said
against him, even though he has been bound to keep it secret.
“XI. A prince should prefer not only the well-being of the State,
but also his prime minister, to all his relations.”
Such were the commandments of the god of France, less astonishing in themselves than the terrible naivete which made him bequeath them to posterity, as if posterity also must believe in him.
While he dictated his instructions, reading them from a small piece of paper, written with his own hand, a deep melancholy seemed to possess him more and more at each word; and when he had ended, he fell back in his chair, his arms crossed, and his head sunk on his breast.
Father Joseph, dropping his pen, arose and was inquiring whether he were ill, when he heard issue from the depths of his chest these mournful and memorable words:
“What utter weariness! what endless trouble! If the ambitious man could see me, he would flee to a desert. What is my power? A miserable reflection of the royal power; and what labors to fix upon my star that incessantly wavering ray! For twenty years I have been in vain attempting it. I can not comprehend that man. He dare not flee me; but they take him from me—he glides through my fingers. What things could I not have done with his hereditary rights, had I possessed them? But, employing such infinite calculation in merely keeping one’s balance, what of genius remains for high enterprises? I hold Europe in my hand, yet I myself am suspended by a trembling hair. What is it to me that I can cast my eyes confidently over the map of Europe, when all my interests are concentrated in his narrow cabinet, and its few feet of space give me more trouble to govern than the whole country besides? See, then, what it is to be a prime minister! Envy me, my guards, if you can.”
His features were so distorted as to give reason to fear some accident; and at the same moment he was seized with a long and violent fit of coughing, which ended in a slight hemorrhage. He saw that Father Joseph, alarmed, was about to seize a gold bell that stood on the table, and, suddenly rising with all the vivacity of a young man, he stopped him, saying: