“Well, give it to me!” exclaimed the King, taking up a pen; “it shall be done at once.”
Chavigni put the warrant in Louis’s hand, and looked at him with intense feeling, and a triumphant smile, as he hastily wrote his signature to it. “Now,” thought Chavigni, “I have you, one and all. Now, proud Cinq Mars, and calculating Bouillon, you are in my power! He signs the warrant against his own brother, and he dare not let you escape;” and, countersigning the warrant, he put a second into the King’s hand,—“That is against the Duke of Bouillon, Sire!” and he calmly took up the first, and placed it in his portfolio.
“The Duke of Bouillon!” exclaimed Louis, with a sudden start, remembering the orders he had sent him, and terrified lest Richelieu should have discovered them. “Is his name to that paper?”
“No, Sire!” answered the Statesman; “it is not. But in the treaty itself, there is abundant proof of his concurrence; and it was on its way to him in Italy when it was discovered. The same messenger bore it that conveyed to him your orders to march his troops into France:” and Chavigni fixed his keen penetrating glance upon the King’s countenance. Louis turned away his head, and signed the warrant; while Chavigni proceeded to place before him that against Fontrailles, and subsequently one which authorized the arrest of Cinq Mars.
“How!” exclaimed the King, “here are the first and most loyal men in my kingdom. Monsieur de Chavigni, this is going too far!”
“Their names, my Liege,” answered Chavigni, “are affixed to the treasonable treaty in my hand.”
“It cannot be!” cried Louis, an expression of painful apprehension coming over his countenance: “It cannot be! My faithful, loyal Cinq Mars is no traitor. I will never believe it!” And he threw himself into a seat, and covered his eyes with his hands.
Chavigni opened the treaty calmly, and briefly recapitulated the principal articles. “The first item is, my Liege,” he proceeded, “that Spain shall instantly furnish ten thousand men to enter France by the way of Flanders; and for a security to his Catholic Majesty, a second item provides, that the Duke of Bouillon shall place in his hands, for the time being, the Principality of Sedan. A third goes on to arrange, that five principal fortified towns of France shall be given into the hands of Spain; and the whole concludes, with a solemn alliance, offensive and defensive, between the conspirators and the Spanish King.—And to this treaty,” added he, in a firm, deep tone of voice, “stand the names of Cinq Mars and Fontrailles.”
“Cinq Mars has been deceived, misled, abused!” cried the King, with a degree of agitation almost amounting to agony.
“That will appear upon his trial, my Liege,” rejoined Chavigni; and then wishing rather to soften the hard task he called upon Louis to perform, he added, in a gentler manner, “Your Majesty was born under the sign Libra, and have always merited the name of Just. If any thing in extenuation of his fault appear in the case of Monsieur le Grand Ecuyer, that can be taken into your merciful consideration after his arrest; but having calmly given an order for the imprisonment of your own Royal brother, your Majesty cannot—will not, show the manifest partiality of letting a person equally culpable escape. May I once more request your Majesty to sign the warrant?”