1

Isoline followed his Eminence beyond the precincts of the chamber, but soon returned, and after carefully closing the door, declaring that there should be no interlopers a second time, she approached the youth, and in the same tone of badinage adopted in the first interview, said,

Well, Monsieur St. Maur! my guests, save one, are all departed --not a mask left to make or mar his tortune. The maître d'hôtel has fed the violin-players, and sent them home-the lights in the saloon are extinguished, and we are almost as solitary as when we crossed those dreary streets to the Val-de-Grace."

"And am I to take this as an invitation that I should follow the way of your guests" replied St. Maur.

"You are not in a condition either to accept or refuse invitations !" exclaimed Isoline, hastily. "Are you not aware that you are a prisoner? I do not distinctly know how you found the way so aptly to this retreat, whilst I, who ought to have been a faithful guardian, played truant-but you bear your fate bravely "

"And my peril amuses you?" asked the youth.

Spite of your misfortunes, monsieur, you amuse me very much," replied the lady. "Rich and poor in one hour-and the change affects you so little as to leave inclination and leisure for eavesdropping! No one seeing a gentleman so unmoved, could believe that bare steel had ever been so close to his heart-and even now, your life hanging on a single thread! Follow the way of my guests!' Indeed, in your situation, I should be afraid to turn the corner of a street, through fear of the assassin. Do you know his Eminence? Are you aware how queens and ministers feel towards those who have possessed themselves of their secrets? Have you not, most daring cavalier, her majesty in your power? At what price would the Cardinal purchase oblivion of all you overheard? Would a life be too great a cost? And yet, it strikes me, that if permitted, you would depart home-and if you reached it in safety, sleep off all that has occurred, as though it were a dream!"

"Far from the truth!" exclaimed the young man. "I feel chained to the spot-l could live here content for ever. But have pity on my confusion. So many strange adventures have crowded upon me during the last twenty-four hours, that I scarcely know yet whether I shall not awake, and find it all a dream." !

"What can I do to convince you that you are in your waking senses?” said Isoline, gaily. "Stay-you must be hungry, and I will not prove a cruel jailer."

She left the room, leaving St. Maur in astonishment at her lightness of spirits, and the jest she made of his position with the Cardinal. "Could the peril be so imminent,” thought the youth, “if she make so light of it?"

These reflections were dissipated by the return of the lady, accompanied by the maître d'hôtel bearing refreshments. He was a man of middle age, sly and forbidding in aspect; and it very much excited the astonishment of St. Maur that such a man should have been se

lected by Isoline as a confidential domestic. He placed the viands before the guest and withdrew, casting one searching look on the youth, but instantly withdrawing his gaze when he found himself the object of scrutiny.

The fair hostess probably guessed what was passing in his mind, for as soon as the maître d'hôtel had closed the door, she said,

"Let that wine, monsieur, prove whether you dream or no-it is a present from the Emperor of the Turks; but if its potent qualities fail, the man who has just left us, the Sieur Bartholin, major domo in this house, and your keeper to-night, will bring you to your He has received my orders, and I fervently hope he has not had other instructions."

senses.

"I do not dream, fair Isoline," exclaimed the youth; "let me thank you for the life you have bestowed

“Rather reproach me for the invitation !" exclaimed Isoline, interrupting him.

"We mock each other, sweet lady," oried the youth kneeling, taking a hand which was not withdrawn; "I feel I owe you more than I yet know of-but all is a mystery: even yourself, whom while I greet as a mistress of this spendid abode, seems subject to strange unworthy influences. Do I err in believing you unprotected an orphan, perhaps, like myself your destiny cast among strangers, subject to their will, and living a life of splendid servitude? Forgive me if I judge wrong, but if rightly, do not despise the homage I offer in true sincerity-my services though humble, are offered with a true heart-may that hour arrive when I can hope

"

Hope for nothing, Monsieur St. Maur," cried Isoline, disengaging her hand, and speaking with a calm gravity which he felt as a reproof" hope for nothing but strength and resolution to escape from your present peril!"

She then, pleading the apparent indifference which he affected to his own danger, as an apology for the confidence about to be repo

sed, declared that her majesty was afraid of the intentions of the Cardinal; but that even the Queen, though unwilling he should suffer, was highly displeased and alarmed that a stranger should possess her secrets; and that it was only from a sense of the services rendered the evening previous, that she yielded to Isoline's entreaties to afford protection against Mazarin's designs. Yet even shielded by royalty, there was but one secure path, and that was to enter the service of Anne.

The youth, delighted with the interest in his welfare, thus expressed by one to whom his heart paid homage, all but openly avowed, scarcely regretted the peril which was attended with so sweet a recompense. Isoline, who could not fail noticing this visible pleasure, was perplexed at the slight impression produced by her recital; she recurred again to the subject, lamenting that her influence with the Queen extended no further than permission for St. Maur to remain under her roof, provided he was also under the surveillance of the Sieur Bartholin.

"And who is this Sieur Bartholin?" cried the youth.

"And may

I ask, how it happens that the menial has more power than the mistress? Or is this one of those secrets of state that may not to be told ?"

"A most sensible question," said the lady. "I have now some hopes of you. Pray dissipate that dreaminess and insensibility which shuts from view the precipice on which you stand. You would know my history. You shall have it, for I never give confidence by halves. When you have been longer at this court, you will discover that none are able to advance themselves, or even maintain their ground, without leaguing with others for mutual protection. It is the same with Cardinal or queen, chancellor or plain gentleman-usher. Our liege lady herself is sometimes obliged to make a party against his Eminence, to bring him to her views. I am without support, save her majesty's affection; but I enlist you, monsieur, into my service."

Commanding him to assume the Cardinal's seat, while she occupied the regal chair, she proceeded to narrate her history.

Isoline de Noailles, at a very early age, became a protégée of the Queen, and childhood exempting her from the suspicions and surveillance of Richelieu, she was permitted to remain in the royal service, every year developing charms of feature and person, which promised to render her the ornament and grace of the court. She made many conquests, and the Queen at length bestowed her in marriage on

M. du Plessis, a gentleman who had recently purchased the charge of captain of the archer body-guard.

Du Plessis bought a château on the banks of the Seine, a few miles from Paris, hired valets who were good violin and flute players, and dined each day that his duties permitted, at his villa, to the sound of music-passed the mornings in hunting, and the evenings in the society of gay associates, allured to his house by revelry and profusion. His constitution, undermined by excesses before marriage, could not support the toil and daily routine of fatigue and pleasure. His character, redeemed by the single trait of devotion and affection to his young wife, was in every other respect that of a finished libertine. Anne was grieved at the unfortunate choice which she had allowed her fair ward to make; but regrets were now without avail.

There might be some slight touch of insanity in the mind of Du Plessis; it were difficult otherwise to account for the mad recklessness of conduct and waste of the powers of body and mind, coupled as it was with a full and reflective consciousness of his own imprudent career. "A short life and a joyous life," was often his cry, as borne from his horse by friends or attendants, in the midst of the hunt, he reclined gasping against a tree, till recruited nature found strength for fresh trials. He died at length, without heir, leaving Isoline a lawsuit for portion, and his debts, which were discharged by the sale of all his available effects.

Madame du Plessis was but too happy to return to the service of Anne, herself a widow, and beset by pretensions which threatened both her peace of mind and the security of the throne. Chief among the throng who beseiged the court was the Duke of Beaufort, who with ambition far beyond places, pensions, and governments, aimed at the affections of his royal mistress. Anne, forced to temporise till she could consolidate her power, arrayed the pretensions of one candidate against the other, and kept all in suspense. In the negotiations which ensued, Isoline exhibited an aptness of talent infinitely serviceable.

About this period, Mazarin by adroitness was fast distancing all competitors; and when at length he became installed as prime minister, was not slow in discovering that Madame du Plessis enjoyed the advantage, singular in this respect amongst the favourites of the Queen, of being uninfluenced by, and safe from the control of relatives, who might have used her as a means for their own advancement. To her surprise, the law-suit, which had languished for several

years, was, by some unseen agency, terminated in her favour. It established the legality of a mortgage, which the other party would not or could not redeem, and thus Madame du Plessis found herself mistress of the Hôtel in the Place Royale.

Of what avail was this large mansion without resources to furnish the saloons, hire domestics, and purchase an equipage? Still, to Isoline's surprise, the bounty of the Queen and the Cardinal decorated the reception-rooms, engaged a suite of servants, and completed munificently the department of the écurie. Without resigning the ra ther subordinate station at court, she entered on the duties and hos→ pitalities of the hôtel; and as it was believed that litigation had gained her more than the empty walls in the Place Royale, she was courted, flattered, and had all the homage ever awarded to a young, beautiful, and wealthy widow.

It was now that the fair Du Plessis discovered the motive of the extreme bounty of the Queen. Under her roof, the Cardinal and his royal mistress could meet undiscovered, converse freely, and, what was above all price, arrange a system of attack or defence, before it was known to their enemies that they had had an interview. If matters had rested here, Isoline would have been content, for the affection she bore the Queen, to undergo all the drudgery which her post demanded. She had been bred in a court where everything that was thought worthy of being won, was attempted by putting in action all the machinery of leagues and counter-leagues, plots and counter-plotting, flattery and dissimulation; and baffle these, when directed against her liege lady, had been Du Plessis's delight. She was not, therefore, averse to the scene being changed to her own domicile; it was pleasing to the vanity of the fair youthful diplomatist, to entertain royalty, even by stealth. But when Mazarin proposed that she should enlarge the circle of her acquaintance, so as to include supporters of all the contending parties, and partly by acting the spy, and partly through her blandishments, draw to light the secrets of his enemies, both modesty and delicacy were shocked, and her pride revolted. His Eminence was angry at her refusal, and firm to the intent proposed; it was not to gain trifles that the Cardinal could relax his avarice, and disburse the treasures of the exchequer as he had done in the appointment of Isoline's splendid establishment. She appealed to the Queen. Anne yielded to the entreaties of her favourite, and promised that his Eminence should not insist on offices so derogatory to a lady of birth, so offensive to womanly reserve. But the Queen was weak where her passions were not