The cardinal's order was pressing; Guenaud quickly obeyedit. He found his patient stretched on his bed, his legsswelled, his face livid, and his stomach collapsed. Mazarinhad a severe attack of gout. He suffered tortures with theimpatience of a man who has not been accustomed toresistances. On seeing Guenaud: "Ah!" said he; "now I amsaved!"

Guenaud was a very learned and circumspect man, who stood inno need of the critiques of Boileau to obtain a reputation.When facing a disease, if it were personified in a king, hetreated the patient as a Turk treats a Moor. He did not,therefore, reply to Mazarin as the minister expected: "Hereis the doctor; good-bye disease!" On the contrary, onexamining his patient, with a very serious air:

"Oh! oh!" said he.

"Eh! what! Guenaud! How you look at me!"

"I look as I should on seeing your complaint, my lord; it isa very dangerous one."

"The gout - oh! yes, the gout."

"With complications, my lord"

Mazarin raised himself upon his elbow, and, questioning bylook and gesture: "What do you mean by that? Am I worse thanI believe myself to be?"

"My lord," said Guenaud, seating himself beside the bed,"your eminence has worked very hard during your life; youreminence has suffered much."

"But I am not old, I fancy. The late M. de Richelieu was butseventeen months younger than I am when he died, and died ofa mortal disease. I am young, Guenaud: remember, I amscarcely fifty-two."

"Oh! my lord, you are much more than that. How long did theFronde last?"

"For what purpose do you put such a question to me?"

"For a medical calculation, monseigneur."

"Well, some ten years - off and on."

"Very well, be kind enough to reckon every year of theFronde as three years - that makes thirty; now twenty andfifty-two makes seventy-two years. You are seventy-two, mylord; and that is a great age."

Whilst saying this, he felt the pulse of his patient. Thispulse was full of such fatal indications, that the physiciancontinued, notwithstanding the interruptions of the patient:"Put down the years of the Fronde at four each, and you havelived eighty-two years."

"Are you speaking seriously, Guenaud?"

"Alas! yes, monseigneur."

"You take a roundabout way, then, to inform me that I amvery ill?"

"Ma foi! yes, my lord, and with a man of the mind andcourage of your eminence, it ought not to be necessary todo."

The cardinal breathed with such difficulty that he inspiredpity even in a pitiless physician. "There are diseases anddiseases," resumed Mazarin. "From some of them peopleescape."

"That is true, my lord."

"Is it not?" cried Mazarin, almost joyously; "for, in short,what else would be the use of power, of strength of will?What would the use of genius be - your genius, Guenaud?What would be the use of science and art, if the patient,who disposes of all that, cannot be saved from peril?"

Guenaud was about to open his mouth, but Mazarin continued:

"Remember," said he, "I am the most confiding of yourpatients; remember I obey you blindly, and that consequently- - "

"I know all that," said Guenaud.

"I shall be cured, then?"

"Monseigneur, there is neither strength of will, nor power,nor genius, nor science that can resist a disease which Goddoubtless sends, or which He casts upon the earth at thecreation, with full power to destroy and kill mankind. Whenthe disease is mortal, it kills, and nothing can - - "

"Is - my - disease - mortal?" asked Mazarin.

"Yes, my lord."

His eminence sank down for a moment, like an unfortunatewretch who is crushed by a falling column. But the spirit ofMazarin was a strong one, or rather his mind was a firm one."Guenaud," said he, recovering from his first shock, "youwill permit me to appeal from your judgment. I will calltogether the most learned men of Europe: I will consultthem. I will live, in short, by the virtue of I care notwhat remedy."

"My lord must not suppose," said Guenaud, "that I have thepresumption to pronounce alone upon an existence so valuableas yours. I have already assembled all the good physiciansand practitioners of France and Europe. There were twelve ofthem."

"And they said - - "

"They said that your eminence was suffering from a mortaldisease; I have the consultation signed in my portfolio. Ifyour eminence will please to see it, you will find the namesof all the incurable diseases we have met with. There isfirst - - "

"No, no!" cried Mazarin, pushing away the paper. "No, no,Guenaud, I yield! I yield!" And a profound silence, duringwhich the cardinal resumed his senses and recovered hisstrength, succeeded to the agitation of this scene. "Thereis another thing," murmured Mazarin; "there are empirics andcharlatans. In my country, those whom physicians abandon runthe chance of a quack, who kills them ten times but savesthem a hundred times."

"Has not your eminence observed, that during the last monthI have changed my remedies ten times?"

"Yes. Well?"

"Well, I have spent fifty thousand crowns in purchasing thesecrets of all these fellows: the list is exhausted, and sois my purse. You are not cured; and but for my art, youwould be dead."

"That ends it!" murmured the cardinal; "that ends it." Andhe threw a melancholy look upon the riches which surroundedhim. "And must I quit all that?" sighed he. "I am dying,Guenaud! I am dying!"

"Oh! not yet, my lord," said the physician.

Mazarin seized his hand. "In what time?" asked he, fixinghis two large eyes upon the impassible countenance of thephysician.

"My lord, we never tell that."

"To ordinary men, perhaps not; - but to me - to me, whoseevery minute is worth a treasure. Tell me, Guenaud, tellme!"

"No, no, my lord."

"I insist upon it, I tell you. Oh! give me a month and forevery one of those thirty days I will pay you a hundredthousand crowns."

"My lord," replied Guenaud, in a firm voice, "it is God whocan give you days of grace, and not I. God only allows you afortnight."

The cardinal breathed a painful sigh, and sank back upon hispillow, murmuring, "Thank you, Guenaud, thank you!"

The physician was about to depart; the dying man, raisinghimself up: "Silence!" said he, with flaming eyes,"silence!"

"My lord, I have known this secret two months; you see thatI have kept it faithfully."

"Go, Guenaud, I will take care of your fortunes, go and tellBrienne to send me a clerk called M. Colbert. Go!"