Chavigni was not sorry to perceive the King’s irritability. The night before he had conveyed to him, in general terms, the news of a private treaty existing between Spain and some that Louis supposed his friends, and had promised to bring him that morning the names of the different parties engaged. He now came to fulfil that promise, and he saw that the former information had been working upon Louis’s mind, and raised in it a degree of impatience and anger that would fall heavily on the first object presented to his resentment. Nor did Chavigni doubt that he would easily be able to turn it in the direction that he wished.
“My Liege,” replied he, “when I find your Majesty’s confidence betrayed, your dominions threatened, and even your person in danger, it is my duty to give your Majesty timely warning, although the news be as unpleasant for me to bear as for you to hear. To conceal treason is the part of a traitor, and as one of your Majesty’s Council——”
“Well, well, Sir,” cried Louis, interrupting him, “spare your exculpation. The executioner is doubtless guiltless of the blood he sheds, but it is not a right honourable trade.”
An angry flush came over Chavigni’s countenance, but it quickly subsided; and he replied calmly, “I came here, as your Majesty knows, to give you more minute particulars of the information I rendered you yesterday; and to prove to you that some whom you esteem your dearest friends, and some who are your nearest relations, are the veriest traitors in France. The affair for no one can be more unpleasant than for myself, for there are some to whom I wish well, that have in this merited their death: therefore, Sire, if you find it too painful to hear, in the name of Heaven, let it rest in silence. I will hie me home and burn the papers I have brought here; and satisfied with having done my duty, only hold myself ready, when the misfortunes which must follow, do arrive, to serve your Majesty with my hand and heart.” And bowing profoundly, Chavigni took a step back, as if about to quit the presence.
“Hold, Monsieur de Chavigni,” said the King, “you have done your duty, we do not doubt. But unpleasant tidings, Sir, are not to be received pleasantly. Were it ourself alone that they aimed at, perhaps we might leave treason to overreach itself; but as the welfare of our kingdom is at stake, we must look the frowning truth in the face, and prepare to punish the guilty, be they who they may, that we may insure the safety of the innocent.”
“Louis the Just,” said Chavigni, advancing and using a term which had been bestowed upon the King by the astrologers of the day from his having been born under the sign ‘Libra,’ “Louis the Just will not act otherwise than justly; and if I prove not to your Majesty’s satisfaction that a most dangerous conspiracy is on foot, let your royal indignation fall upon me.”
“I know not what you call a conspiracy, Sir,” answered Louis, his mind reverting to the plans of Cinq Mars, to which, as we have seen, he had given his own sanction only a few nights before, and for the discovery of which he felt as much alarm as if Richelieu possessed the power of punishing him also.
“The conspiracy I speak of, Sire,” rejoined the Statesman, “is formed not only to oblige your Majesty to change your Ministers, but—”
“I can conceive no plan for obliging me to change my Ministers,” interrupted the King. “You must have mistaken, Monsieur de Chavigni; perhaps the persons whom you style conspirators, have only in view to make me dutiful petition and remonstrance, in which case I should give their arguments all due weight and consideration. Therefore, if this be the information you bring, I wish to hear no more.”
Long accustomed to observe every particular point of weakness in the King’s mind, Chavigni at once conceived the whole train of Louis’s thoughts, and judged from the very alarm which he saw in the Monarch’s countenance, that if the Cardinal’s power could once be re-established, it would be more unbounded than ever; and as these ideas passed through his mind, they called a transient smile upon his lip.