"Mademoiselle, the king must do without her. Monsieur le Cardinal will have it so. He has exiled his nieces to Brouage."
"He! the hypocrite!"
"Hush!" said Louise, pressing a finger on her friend's rosy lips.
"Bah! nobody can hear me. I say that old Mazarino Mazarini is a hypocrite, who burns impatiently to make his niece Queen of France."
"That cannot be, mademoiselle, since Monsieur le Cardinal, on the contrary, has brought about the marriage of his majesty with the Infanta Maria Theresa."
Montalais looked Raoul full in the face, and said, "And do you Parisians believe in these tales? Well! we are a little more cunning than you at Blois."
"Mademoiselle, if the king goes beyond Poitiers and sets out for Spain; if the articles of the marriage contract are agreed upon by Don Luis de Haro and his eminence, you must plainly perceive that it is not child's play."
"All very fine! but the king is king, I suppose?"
"No doubt, mademoiselle; but the cardinal is the cardinal."
"The king is not a man then! And he does not love Mary Mancini?"
"He adores her."
"Well, he will marry her then. We shall have war with Spain. Monsieur Mazarin will spend a few of the millions he has put away; our gentlemen will perform prodigies of valor in their encounters with the proud Castilians, and many of them will return crowned with laurels, to be recrowned by us with myrtles. Now, that is my view of politics."
"Montalais, you are wild!" said Louise, "and every exaggeration attracts you as light does a moth."
"Louise, you are so extremely reasonable that you will never know how to love."
"Oh!" said Louise, in a tone of tender reproach, "don't you see, Montalais? The queen-mother desires to marry her son to the infanta; would you wish him to disobey his mother? Is it for a royal heart like this to set such a bad example? When parents forbid love, love must be banished."
And Louise sighed; Raoul cast down his eyes, with an expression of constraint. Montalais, on her part, laughed aloud.
