The Cardinal may have been staggered by St. Auban's bluntness, but his
avaricious instincts led him to stifle his feelings and bid the Marquis to
set this proof before him. But St. Auban had a bargain to drive--a
preposterous one methought. He demanded that in return for his delivering
into the hands of Mazarin the person of Armand de Canaples together with an
incontestable proof that the Chevalier was in league with the frondeurs,
and had offered to place a large sum of money at their disposal, he was to
receive as recompense the demesne of Canaples on the outskirts of Blois,
together with one third of the confiscated estates. At first Mazarin
gasped at his audacity, then laughed at him, whereupon St. Auban politely
craved his Eminence's permission to withdraw. This the Cardinal, however,
refused him, and bidding him remain, he sought to bargain with him. But
the Marquis replied that he was unversed in the ways of trade and barter,
and that he had no mind to enter into them. From bargaining the Cardinal
passed on to threatening and from threatening to whining, and so on until
the end--St.
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