“I do correspond with them; but seldom: and then by any means that occur.”
“Monsieur de Blenau,” exclaimed Lafemas, “I am enchanted with this frankness; but be a little more specific about the means. If you have no particular objection to confide in me, mention any channel that you call to mind, by which you have sent letters to the Low Countries.”
De Blenau felt somewhat disgusted with the sweet and friendly manner of a man whose deeds spoke him as cruel and as bloody-minded as a famished tiger; and unwilling to be longer mocked with soft words, he replied, “Sometimes by the King’s courier, Sir; sometimes by the Cardinal’s: and once I remember having sent one by your cousin De Merceau, but I believe that letter never reached its destination; for you must recollect that De Merceau was hanged by Don Francisco de Mello, for ripping open the bag, and purloining the despatches.”
“We have nothing to do with that, my dear Count,” said Lafemas, struggling to maintain his placidity of demeanour.—“The next thing I have to inquire is,"—and he looked at a paper he held in his hand: “Have you ever conveyed any letters to the Low Countries for any one else?”
De Blenau answered in the affirmative; and the Judge proceeded with a series of questions, very similar to those which had been asked by Richelieu himself, artfully striving to entangle the prisoner by means of his own admissions, so as to force him into farther confessions by the impossibility of receding. But beyond a certain point De Blenau would not proceed.
“Monsieur Lafemas,” said he in a calm firm tone, “I perceive that you are going into questions which have already been asked me by his Eminence the Cardinal Prime Minister. The object in doing so is evidently to extort from me some contradiction which may criminate myself; and therefore henceforward I will reply to no such questions whatsoever. The Cardinal is in possession of my answers; and if you want them, you must apply to him.”
“You mistake entirely, my dear Count,” said Lafemas; “on my salvation, my only object is to serve you. You have already acknowledged that you have forwarded letters from the Queen,—why not now inform me to whom those letters were addressed? If those letters were not of a treasonable nature, why did she not send them by one of her own servants?”
“When a Queen of France is not allowed the common attendants which a simple gentlewoman can command, she may often be glad to use the servants and services of her friends. My own retinue, Sir, trebles that which the Queen has ever possessed at St. Germain’s. But, without going into these particulars, your question is at once replied to by reminding you, that I am her Majesty’s Chamberlain, and therefore her servant.”
“Without there were something wrong, Monsieur de Blenau,” said Lafemas, “you could have no objection to state whether you have or have not conveyed some letters from her Majesty to Don John of Austria, Don Francisco de Mello, or King Philip of Spain. It is very natural for a Queen to write to her near relations, surely!”
“I have already said,” replied De Blenau, “that I shall reply to no such questions, the object of which is alone to entangle me.”