Ten Years Later

by Alexandre Dumas

  The Theatin entered deliberately, without being too much astonishedat the noise and agitation which anxiety for the cardinal's health hadraised in his household. "Come in, my reverend father," said Mazarin,after a last look at the ruelle, "come in and console me."

  "That is my duty, my lord," replied the Theatin.

  "Begin by sitting down, and making yourself comfortable, for I am goingto begin with a general confession, you will afterwards give me a goodabsolution, and I shall believe myself more tranquil."

  "My lord," said the father, "you are not so ill as to make a generalconfession urgent--and it will be very fatiguing--take care."

  "You suspect then, that it may be long, father"

  "How can I think it otherwise, when a man has lived so completely asyour eminence has done?"

  "Ah! that is true!--yes--the recital may be long."

  "The mercy of God is great," snuffled the Theatin.

  "Stop," said Mazarin; "there I begin to terrify myself with havingallowed so many things to pass which the Lord might reprove."

  "Is not that always so?" said the Theatin naively, removing further fromthe lamp his thin pointed face, like that of a mole. "Sinners are soforgetful beforehand, and scrupulous when it is too late."

  "Sinners?" replied Mazarin. "Do you use that word ironically, and toreproach me with all the genealogies I have allowed to be made on myaccount--I--the son of a fisherman, in fact?" *

  * This is quite untranslatable--it being a play upon the words pecheur, a sinner, and pecheur, a fisherman. It is in very bad taste.--TRANS.

  "Hum!" said the Theatin.

  "That is a first sin, father; for I have allowed myself made to descendfrom two old Roman consuls, S. Geganius Macerinus 1st, Macerinus 2d, andProculus Macerinus 3d, of whom the Chronicle of Haolander speaks.From Macerinus to Mazarin the proximity was tempting. Macerinus, adiminutive, means leanish, poorish, out of case. Oh! reverend father!Mazarini may now be carried to the augmentative Maigre, thin as Lazarus.Look!" and he showed his fleshless arms.

  "In your having been born of a family of fishermen I see nothinginjurious to you; for--St. Peter was a fisherman; and if you are aprince of the church, my lord, he was the supreme head of it. Pass on,if you please."

  "So much the more for my having threatened with the Bastile a certainBounet, a priest of Avignon, who wanted to publish a genealogy of theCasa Mazarini much too marvelous."

  "To be probable?" replied the Theatin.

  "Oh! if I had acted up to his idea, father, that would have been thevice of pride--another sin."

  "It was excess of wit, and a person is not to be reproached with suchsorts of abuses. Pass on, pass on!"

  "I was all pride. Look you, father, I will endeavor to divide that intocapital sins."

  "I like divisions, when well made."

  "I am glad of that. You must know that in 1630--alas! that is thirty-oneyears ago----"

  "You were then twenty-nine years old, monseigneur."

  "A hot-headed age. I was then something of a soldier, and I threw myselfat Casal into the arquebuscades, to show that I rode on horseback aswell as an officer. It is true, I restored peace between the French andthe Spaniards. That redeems my sin a little."

  "I see no sin in being able to ride well on horseback," said theTheatin; "that is in perfect good taste, and does honor to our gown. Asa Christian, I approve of your having prevented the effusion of blood;as a monk I am proud of the bravery a monk has exhibited."

  Mazarin bowed his head humbly. "Yes," said he, "but the consequences?"

  "What consequences?"

  "Eh! that damned sin of pride has roots without end. From the timethat I threw myself in that manner between two armies, that I had smeltpowder and faced lines of soldiers, I have held generals a little incontempt."

  "Ah!" said the father.

  "There is the evil; so that I have not found one endurable since thattime."

  "The fact is," said the Theatin, "that the generals we have had have notbeen remarkable."

  "Oh!" cried Mazarin, "there was Monsieur le Prince. I have tormented himthoroughly."

  "He is not much to be pitied: he has acquired sufficient glory, andsufficient wealth."

  "That may be, for Monsieur le Prince; but M. Beaufort, for example--whomI held suffering so long in the dungeon of Vincennes?"

  "Ah! but he was a rebel, and the safety of the state required that youshould make a sacrifice. Pass on!"

  "I believe I have exhausted pride. There is another sin which I amafraid to qualify."

  "I can qualify it myself. Tell it."

  "A great sin, reverend father!"

  "We shall judge, monseigneur."

  "You cannot fail to have heard of certain relations which I havehad--with her majesty the queen-mother;--the malevolent----"

  "The malevolent, my lord, are fools. Was it not necessary for the goodof the state and the interests of the young king, that you should livein good intelligence with the queen? Pass on, pass on!"

  "I assure you," said Mazarin, "you remove a terrible weight from mybreast."

  "These are all trifles!--look for something serious."

  "I have had much ambition, father."

  "That is the march of great minds and things, my lord."

  "Even the longing for the tiara?"

  "To be pope is to be the first of Christians. Why should you not desirethat?"

  "It has been printed that, to gain that object, I had sold Cambria tothe Spaniards."

  "You have, perhaps, yourself written pamphlets without severelypersecuting pamphleteers."

  "Then, reverend father, I have truly a clean breast. I feel nothingremaining but slight peccadilloes."

  "What are they?"

  "Play."

  "That is rather worldly: but you were obliged by the duties of greatnessto keep a good house."

  "I like to win."

  "No player plays to lose."

  "I cheated a little."

  "You took your advantage. Pass on."

  "Well! reverend father, I feel nothing else upon my conscience. Give meabsolution, and my soul will be able, when God shall please to call it,to mount without obstacle to the throne----"

  The Theatin moved neither his arms nor his lips. "What are you waitingfor, father?" said Mazarin.

  "I am waiting for the end."

  "The end of what?"

  "Of the confession, monsieur."

  "But I have ended."

  "Oh, no; your eminence is mistaken."

  "Not that I know of."

  "Search diligently."

  "I have searched as well as possible."

  "Then I shall assist your memory."

  "Do."

  The Theatin coughed several times. "You have said nothing of avarice,another capital sin, nor of those millions," said he.

  "What millions, father?"

  "Why, those you possess, my lord."

  "Father, that money is mine, why should I speak to you about that?"

  "Because, see you, our opinions differ. You say that money is yours,whilst I--I believe it is rather the property of others."

  Mazarin lifted his cold hand to his brow, which was beaded withperspiration. "How so?" stammered he.

  "This way. Your excellency has gained much wealth--in the service of theking."

  "Hum! much--that is, not too much."

  "Whatever it may be, whence came that wealth?

  "From the state."

  "The state, that is the king."

  "But what do you conclude from that, father?" said Mazarin, who began totremble.

  "I cannot conclude without seeing a list of the riches you possess. Letus reckon a little, if you please. You have the bishopric of Metz?"

  "Yes."

  "The abbeys of St. Clement, St. Arnould, and St. Vincent, all at Metz?"

  "Yes."

  "You have the abbey of St. Denis, in France, a magnificent property?"

  "Yes, father."

  "You have the abbey of
Cluny, which is rich?"

  "I have."

  "That of St. Medard at Soissons, with a revenue of one hundred thousandlivres?"

  "I cannot deny it."

  "That of St. Victor, at Marseilles,--one of the best in the south?"

  "Yes, father."

  "A good million a year. With the emoluments of the cardinalship and theministry, I say too little when I say two millions a year."

  "Eh!"

  "In ten years that is twenty millions,--and twenty millions put outat fifty per cent give, by progression, twenty-three millions in tenyears."

  "How well you reckon for a Theatin!"

  "Since your eminence placed our order in the convent we occupy, near St.Germain des Pres, in 1641, I have kept the accounts of the society."

  "And mine likewise, apparently, father."

  "One ought to know a little of everything, my lord."

  "Very well. Conclude, at present."

  "I conclude that your baggage is too heavy to allow you to pass throughthe gates of Paradise."

  "Shall I be damned?"

  "If you do not make restitution, yes."

  Mazarin uttered a piteous cry. "Restitution!--but to whom, good God?"

  "To the owner of that money,--to the king."

  "But the king did not give it all to me."

  "One moment,--does not the king sign the ordonnances?"

  Mazarin passed from sighs to groans. "Absolution! absolution!" cried he.

  "Impossible, my lord. Restitution! restitution!" replied the Theatin.

  "But you absolve me from all other sins, why not from that?"

  "Because," replied the father, "to absolve you for that motive would bea sin for which the king would never absolve me, my lord."

  Thereupon the confessor quitted his penitent with an air full ofcompunction. He then went out in the same manner he had entered.

  "Oh, good God!" groaned the cardinal. "Come here, Colbert, I am very,very ill indeed, my friend."

  CHAPTER 46. The Donation