"Monsieur de Cinq-Mars is arrested."
"And the Duke de Bouillon?"
"Fled."
"The treaty with the king of Spain?"
"At the moment it was signed at Madrid, the cunning cardinal received a copy of it."
"By whom was the plot discovered?"
"By a secret agent, who had wormed himself into it."
"My enemies, then, still triumph?"
"Richelieu is more powerful, and the king more subject to him than ever."
That same night the poor old woman was seized with a burning fever. In her delirium the phantom-man in red still pursued her, and her ravings were terrible to hear. Bridget, seated at her bedside, prayed for her; and at the end of a month she began slowly to recover. Borne down, however, by years, poverty, and misfortune, Marie Marianni felt that her end was approaching. Despite Father Francis's dissuasion, she again had recourse to the astrological tablets, on which were drawn, in black and red figures, the various houses of the sun, and of the star which presided over her nativity. On this occasion their omens were unfavorable; and rejecting all spiritual consolation—miserable in the present, and hopeless for the future—Marie Marianni expired in the beginning of July, 1642.