The Duc d’Halluin came after them; the Cardinal broke off the compliments he was addressing to the others, to utter, in a loud voice:
“Monsieur le Duc, I inform you with pleasure that the King has made you a marshal of France; you will sign yourself Schomberg, will you not, at Leucate, delivered, as we hope, by you? But pardon me, here is Monsieur de Montauron, who has doubtless something important to communicate.”
“Oh, no, my lord, I would only say that the poor young man whom you deigned to consider in your service is dying of hunger.”
“Pshaw! at such a moment to speak of things like this! Your little Corneille will not write anything good; we have only seen ‘Le Cid’ and ‘Les Horaces’ as yet. Let him work, let him work! it is known that he is in my service, and that is disagreeable. However, since you interest yourself in the matter, I give him a pension of five hundred crowns on my privy purse.”
The Chancellor of the Exchequer retired, charmed with the liberality of the minister, and went home to receive with great affability the dedication of Cinna, wherein the great Corneille compares his soul to that of Augustus, and thanks him for having given alms ‘a quelques Muses’.
The Cardinal, annoyed by this importunity, rose, observing that the day was advancing, and that it was time to set out to visit the King.
At this moment, and as the greatest noblemen present were offering their arms to aid him in walking, a man in the robe of a referendary advanced toward him, saluting him with a complacent and confident smile which astonished all the people there, accustomed to the great world, seeming to say: “We have secret affairs together; you shall see how agreeable he makes himself to me. I am at home in his cabinet.” His heavy and awkward manner, however, betrayed a very inferior being; it was Laubardemont.
Richelieu knit his brows when he saw him, and cast a glance at Joseph; then, turning toward those who surrounded him, he said, with bitter scorn:
“Is there some criminal about us to be apprehended?”
Then, turning his back upon the discomfited Laubardemont, the Cardinal left him redder than his robe, and, preceded by the crowd of personages who were to escort him in carriages or on horseback, he descended the great staircase of the palace.