DE MAUPRAT.

Scarcely; the poorest coward Must die; but knowingly to march to marriageMy lord, it asks the courage of a lion!

RICHELIEU.

Traitor, thou triflest with me! I know all!
Thou hast dared to love my ward, my charge.

DE MAUPRAT.

May love the sunlight, basking in the beams,
And hurrying on!

RICHELIEU.

As rivers

Thou hast told her of thy love?

DE MAUPRAT.

My lord, if I had dared to love a maid,

Lowliest in France, I would not so have wrong'd her As bid her link rich life and virgin hope

With one, the deathman's gripe might from her side Pluck at the nuptial altar.

RICHELIEU.

I believe thee;

Yet since she knows not of thy love, renounce her; Take life and fortune with another!

DE MAUPRAT.

Silent?

Your fate has been one triumph. You know not
How bless'd a thing it was in my dark hour

To nurse the one sweet thought you bid me banish.
Love hath no need of words; nor less within

That holiest temple, the heaven-builded soul,
Breathes the recorded vow. Base knight, false lover
Were he, who barter'd all that brighten'd grief,
Or sanctified despair, for life and gold.

Revoke your mercy; I prefer the fate

I look'd for!

RICHELIEU.

Huguet! to the tapestry chamber

Conduct your prisoner.

(To Mauprat.)

You will there behold

The executioner: your doom be private;
And Heaven have mercy on you!

DE MAUPRAT.

When I'm dead,

Tell her I loved her.

RICHELIEU.

Keep such follies, sir,

For fitter ears; go.

Come forth.

DE MAUPRAT.

Does he mock me?

[Exeunt de Mauprat, Huguet.

RICHELIEU.

Joseph,

Enter Joseph.

Methinks your cheek hath lost its rubies;
I fear you have been too lavish of the flesh;
The scourge is heavy.

JOSEPH.

Pray you, change the subject.

RICHELIEU.

You good men are so modest! Well, to business!
Go instantly-deeds-notaries! bid my stewards
Arrange my house by the Luxembourg; my house
No more! a bridal present to my ward,

Who weds to-morrow.

JOSEPH.

Weds, with whom?

RICHELIEU.

De Mauprat

JOSEPH.

Penniless husband!

RICHELIEU.

Bah! the mate for beauty

Should be a man, and not a money-chest!
When her brave sire lay on his bed of death,
I vow'd to be a father to his Julie:

And so he died, the smile upon his lips!
And when I spared the life of her young lover,
Methought I saw that smile again! Who else,
Look you, in all the court-who else so well,
Brave, or supplant the favourite; balk the king,
Baffle their schemes? I have tried him; he has honour
And courage; qualities that eagle-plume
Men's souls, and fit them for the fiercest sun,
Which ever melted the weak waxen minds
That flutter in the beams of gaudy power!

Besides, he has taste, this Mauprat: when my play
Was acted to dull tiers of lifeless gapers,*
Who had no soul for poetry, I saw him
Applaud in the proper places: trust me, Joseph,
He is a man of an uncommon promise!

And yet your foe.

JOSEPH.

RICHELIEU.

Have I not foes enow?

Great men gain doubly when they make foes friends.
Remember my grand maxims: first employ
All methods to conciliate.†

* The Abbé Arnaud tells us that the queen was a little avenged on the cardinal by the ill success of the tragi-comedy of Mirame, more than suspected to be his own, though presented to the world. under the foster name of Desmarets. Its representation (says Pelisson) cost him 300,000 crowns. He was so transported out of himself by the performance, that at one time he thrust his person half out of his box to show himself to the assembly; at another time he imposed silence on the audience that they might not lose "des endroits encore plus beaux ! He said afterward to Desmarets, "Eh bien, les Français n'auront donc jamais de goût. Ils n'ont pas été charmés de Mirame!" Arnaud says pithily, "On ne pouvoit alors avoir d'autre satisfaction des offenses d'un homme qui étoit maître de tout et redoutable à tout le monde." Nevertheless, his style in prose, though not devoid of the pedantic affectations of the time, often rises into very noble eloquence.

"Vialart remarque une chose qui peut expliquer la conduite de Richelieu en d'autres circonstances: c'est que les seigneurs à qui leur naissance ou leur mérite pouvoit permettre des prétensions, il avoit pour systême, de leur accorder au-delà même de leurs droits et de leurs espérances, mais, aussi, une fois comblés; si, au lieu de reconnoître ses services ils se levoient contre lui, il les traitoit sans

JOSEPH.

Failing these?

RICHELIEU (fiercely). ~

All means to crush: as with the opening and
The clinching of this little hand, I will

Crush the small venom of these stinging courtiers.
So, so, we've baffled Baradas.

Check the conspiracy?

JOSEPH.

And when

RICHELIEU.

Check, check? Full way to it.

Let it bud, ripen, flaunt i' the day, and burst
To fruit, the Dead Sea's fruit of ashes; ashes
Which I will scatter to the winds.

Go, Joseph:

When you return, I have a feast for you;

The last great act of my great play: the verses,
Methinks, are fine, ah, very fine. You write

Verses!* (aside) such verses! You have wit, discernment.

JOSEPH (aside).

Worse than the scourge! Strange that so great a states

man

Should be so bad a poet.

RICHELIEU.

What dost say?

JOSEPH.

That it is strange so great a statesman should
Be so sublime a poet.

miséricorde."-Anquétil. See also the Political Testament, and the Mémoires de Cardinal Richelieu, in Petitot's collection.

* "Tantôt fanatique-tantôt fourbe-fonder les religieuses de Calvaire-fair des vers." Thus speaks Voltaire of Father Joseph. His talents and influence with Richelieu, grossly exaggerated in his own day, are now rightly estimated.

"C'etoit en effet un homme indefatigable; portant dans les entreprises, l'activité, la souplesse, l'opiniâtreté propres à les faire réussir.” -Anquétil. He wrote a Latin poem, called "La Turciade," in which he sought to excite the kingdoms of Christendom against the Turks, But the inspiration of Tyrtæus was denied to Father Joseph.

RICHELIEU.

Ah, you rogue;

Laws die, books never. Of my ministry

I am not vain! but of my muse, I own it.

Come, you shall hear the verses now (takes up a MS.).

Oh, speak, my lord, I dare not think you mock me,

And yet

RICHELIEU.

Hush, hush. This line must be consider'd!

He smiles! you smile,

My father! From my heart for ever, now,

I'll blot the name of orphan!

RICHELIEU.

Rise, my children,

For ye are mine-mine both; and in your sweet