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96 Mazarin returns, her connexion with his nieces may be useful."

The next morning, Joinville was the first person he encountered in the ante-chamber of Monsieur.

"Have you heard the news?" exclaimed he, eagerly; "the Prince of Condé has left Paris, and the twenty-first is talked of as being the day fixed for the king's entrance. The troops are advancing every hour, and Mazarin is omnipotent with Turenne." And the young Important, in his delight at being the first to communicate a piece of intelligence, seemed to forget that it was the utter ruin of his party that he was announcing.

Evelyn made his way to the inner room, where an assembled group were already engaged in conference; but the voices were languid, and the speakers hesitated; each seemed waiting for the other's opinion before he would venture his own. Gaston of Orleans was seated in a fauteuil, wrapped in a loose dressing-gown, everything about him betokening an indolent love of ease. He had that striking likeness which characterises all the Bourbons—and his first appearance was dignified; but when he spoke or moved, this dignity, at least on ordinary occasions, was entirely lost. He had a peculiarity in speaking,