"
The president blushed with pleasure at the high praises of the
cardinal.
"And now," he said, "I take the liberty of repeating my question,
did the Countess Lamotte-Valois succeed in procuring for your
eminence a secret audience with the queen?"
"She did," replied the cardinal, "she did procure an interview for
me."
And compelling himself to a quiet manner, he went on with his story:
The Countess de Valois came to him after two days with a joyful
countenance, and brought to him the request to accompany the
Countess Valois two days after to Versailles, where, in the garden,
in a place indicated by the countess, the meeting of the queen and
the cardinal should take place. The cardinal was to put on the
simple, unpretending dress of a citizen of Paris, a blue cloth coat,
a round hat, and high leather boots. The cardinal, full of
inexpressible delight at this, could, notwithstanding, scarcely
believe that the queen would show him this intoxicating mark of her
favor; upon which the Countess Valois, laughing, showed him a letter
of the queen, directed to her, on gold-bordered paper, and signed
like the note which he had received before--" Marie Antoinette of
France." In this note the queen requested her dear friend to go
carefully to work to warn the cardinal to speak softly during the
interview, because there were ears lurking in the neighborhood, and
not to come out from the thicket till the queen should give a sign.
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