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102 must confirm your treaty with the Spaniard; and, my life on the issue, you dictate your own terms. But you must act at once. Permit me to conclude with the old legend of the English friar, who framed unto himself a brazen head, endowed with all sorts of magical properties. In the course of time, this head was to speak; and when the hour of its finding a voice came, it was to communicate everything in the world. The appointed moment arrived—the image spoke, and said, 'Time was—time is'—but, alas! the friar was sleeping at that precise instant. 'Time is past!' said the voice; and the 'head was shivered into a thousand pieces, leaving the luckless maker nothing but regret for having thus wasted the labours of a life. Now, decision is our brazen image—the time is, and is also rapidly passing away; in a short while we shall be broken up and dispersed, even like the fragments of the brazen head."

"Still," replied Monsieur, who had listened with evident impatience, "if the King has resolved on his return, it is not my duty to oppose it. I must regret my inability at Blois: truly, quiet and retirement will be very acceptable, after all my fatigue and anxiety."

"Mon bon Dieu!" exclaimed Madame; "is this language for a prince of France? But if it