The Three Musketeers (Translated by Richard Pevear) - Alexandre Dumas [87]
“That’s it!” said the king. “To him, no doubt. Cardinal, I must have the queen’s papers.”
“But how to take them, Sire? It seems to me that neither I nor Your Majesty can assume such a mission.”
“How was it handled with the maréchale d’Ancre?”73 cried the king in the highest degree of wrath. “Her wardrobes were searched, and finally she herself was searched.”
“The maréchale d’Ancre was only the maréchale d’Ancre, a Florentine adventuress, Sire, nothing more; while Your Majesty’s august spouse is Anne d’Autriche, queen of France—that is, one of the greatest princesses in the world.”
“She’s all the more guilty, M. le duc! The more she has forgotten the high position in which she has been placed, the lower she has descended. Besides, I decided long ago to put an end to all these little political and amorous intrigues. She also keeps a certain La Porte around her…”
“Whom I believe to be the linchpin in all this, I confess,” said the cardinal.
“So you think, as I do, that she is deceiving me?” said the king.
“I think, and I repeat to Your Majesty, that the queen is conspiring against the power of her king, but I have never said against his honor.”
“And I tell you against both at once; I tell you that the queen does not love me; I tell you that she loves another; I tell you that she loves that infamous duke of Buckingham! Why didn’t you have him arrested while he was in Paris?”
“Arrest the duke? Arrest the prime minister of King Charles I!? Can you conceive of it, Sire? What a scandal! And if Your Majesty’s suspicions, which I continue to doubt, turned out to have some substance, what a terrible scandal! What a hopeless scandal!”
“But since he’s exposed himself as a vagabond and a pilferer, we ought…”
Louis XIII stopped himself, frightened by what he was about to say, while Richelieu, stretching his neck, waited in vain for the word that remained on the king’s lips.
“We ought?”
“Nothing,” said the king, “nothing. But you didn’t lose sight of him all the while he was in Paris?”
“No, Sire.”
“Where did he stay?”
“At 75 rue de la Harpe.”
“Where’s that?”
“Beside the Luxembourg.”
“And you’re sure that the queen and he did not see each other?”
“I think the queen is too attached to her duties, Sire.”
“But they corresponded. It was to him that the queen was writing all day. M. le duc, I must have those letters!”
“However, Sire…”
“M. le duc, I want them, whatever the price.”
“All the same, I will point out to Your Majesty…”
“Are you betraying me, too, then, M. le cardinal, opposing my will like this all the time? Are you also in concert with the Spaniard and the Englishman, with Mme de Chevreuse and the queen?”
“Sire,” the cardinal answered with a sigh, “I thought I was safe from such suspicions.”
“You have heard me, M. le cardinal. I want those letters.”
“There is only one way.”
“Which is?”
“It would be to entrust this mission to M. Séguier, the keeper of the seals. The thing falls completely within the duties of his office.”
“Send someone to fetch him this very instant!”
“He should be in my rooms, Sire. I had asked him to pass by, and when I came to the Louvre, I left orders to have him wait, if he presented himself.”
“Let someone go and fetch him this very instant!”
“Your Majesty’s orders will be carried out. But…”
“But what?”
“But the queen may refuse to obey.”
“My orders?”
“Yes, if she is unaware that these orders come from the king.”
“Well, then, so that she won’t doubt it, I’ll go and inform her myself!”
“Your Majesty should not forget that I have done all I could to prevent a breach.”
“Yes, Duke, I know you are very indulgent towards the queen, too indulgent perhaps; and I warn you, we shall have to talk about that later.”
“Whenever it please Your Majesty. But I will always be happy and proud to sacrifice myself to the good harmony that I wish to see reign between