“Well, this time,” said the cardinal, “it is not necessary to steal his confidence, but to present yourself frankly and loyally as a negotiator.”
“Frankly and loyally,” repeated Milady, with an unspeakable expression of duplicity.
“Yes, frankly and loyally,” replied the cardinal, in the same tone. “All this negotiation must be carried on openly.”
“I will follow your Eminence’s instructions to the letter. I only wait till you give them.”
“You will go to Buckingham in my behalf, and you will tell him I am acquainted with all the preparations he has made; but that they give me no uneasiness, since at the first step he takes I will ruin the queen.”
“Will he believe that your Eminence is in a position to accomplish the threat thus made?”
“Yes; for I have the proofs.”
“I must be able to present these proofs for his appreciation.”
“Without doubt. And you will tell him I will publish the report of Bois-Robert and the Marquis de Beautru, upon the interview which the duke had at the residence of Madame the Constable with the queen on the evening Madame the Constable gave a masquerade. You will tell him, in order that he may not doubt, that he came there in the costume of the Great Mogul, which the Chevalier de Guise was to have worn, and that he purchased this exchange for the sum of three thousand pistoles.”
“Well, monseigneur?”
“All the details of his coming into and going out of the palace—on the night when he introduced himself in the character of an Italian