“Who, I believe, is the mainspring of all this, I confess,” said the cardinal.

“You think then, as I do, that she deceives me?” said the king.

“I believe, and I repeat it to Your Majesty, that the queen conspires against the power of the king, but I have not said against his honor.”

“And I⁠—I tell you against both. I tell you the queen does not love me; I tell you she loves another; I tell you she loves that infamous Buckingham! Why did you not have him arrested while in Paris?”

“Arrest the Duke! Arrest the prime minister of King Charles I ! Think of it, sire! What a scandal! And if the suspicions of Your Majesty, which I still continue to doubt, should prove to have any foundation, what a terrible disclosure, what a fearful scandal!”