While De Blenau spoke, the Cardinal’s brow knitted into a frown. A flush too came over his cheek; and untying the ribbon which served as a fastening, he took off the velvet cap he generally wore, as if to give himself air. He heard him, however, to the end, and then answered drily, “You speak well, Monsieur de Blenau, and, I doubt not, feel what you say. But am I to understand you, that you refuse to aid us at the Council with your information and advice?”
“So far, your Eminence is right,” replied the Count, who saw that the storm was now about to break upon his head; “I must, indeed, decline the honours which you offer with so bountiful a hand. But do not suppose that I do so from unwillingness to yield you any information; for, truly, I have none to give. I have never meddled with politics. I have never turned my attention to State affairs; and therefore still less could I yield you any advice. Your Eminence would be woefully disappointed, when you expected to find a man well acquainted with the arts of government, and deep read in the designs of foreign states, to meet with one, whose best knowledge is to range a battalion, or to pierce a boar; a soldier, and not a diplomatist; a hunter, and not a statesman. And as to the government of Poitou, my Lord, its only good would be the emolument, and already my revenues are far more than adequate to my wants.”
“You refuse my kindness, Sir,” replied the Cardinal, with an air of deep determined haughtiness, very different from the urbanity with which he had at first received De Blenau; “I must now speak to you in another tone. And let me warn you to beware of what you say; for be assured, that I already possess sufficient information to confound you if you should prevaricate.”
“My Lord Cardinal,” replied De Blenau, somewhat hastily, “I am not accustomed to prevaricate. Ask any questions you please, and, so long as my honour and my duty go with them, I will answer you.”
“Then there are questions,” said the Cardinal, “that you would think against your duty to answer?”
“I said not so, your Eminence,” replied De Blenau. “In the examination I find I am to undergo, give my words their full meaning, if you please, but no more than their meaning.”
“Well then, Sir, answer me as a man of honour and a French noble,” said the Cardinal—“Are you not aware of a correspondence that has been, and is now, carried on between Anne of Austria and Don Francisco de Mello, Governor of the Low Countries?”
“I know not whom you mean, Sir, by Anne of Austria,” replied De Blenau. “If it be her Majesty, your Queen and mine, that you so designate, I reply at once that I know of no such correspondence, nor do I believe that it exists.”
“Do you mean to say, Monsieur de Blenau,” demanded the Cardinal, fixing his keen sunken eyes upon the young Count with that basilisk glance for which he was famous—“Do you mean to say, that you yourself have not forwarded letters from the Queen to Madame de Chevreuse, and Don Francisco de Mello, by a private channel?—Pause, Monsieur de Blenau, before you answer, and be well assured that I am acquainted with every particular of your conduct.”
“Your Eminence is, no doubt, acquainted with much more intricate subjects than any of my actions,” replied the Count. “With regard to Madame de Chevreuse, her Majesty has no need to conceal a correspondence with her, which has been fully permitted and sanctioned, both by your Eminence and the still higher authority of the King; and I may add, that to my certain knowledge, letters have gone to that lady by your own courier. On the other point, I have answered already; and have only to say once more, that I know of no such correspondence, nor would I, assuredly, lend myself to any such measures, which I should conceive to be treasonable.”