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" and fools speak truth," muttered Evelyn, as he parted that night from Joinville, and meditated on the return of Mazarin, which the other had so lightly prophesied. "If so, I am paying court in the wrong quarter; and the promises made by De Retz of assistance to our cause, when he becomes minister, are as vain as promises usually are. Well! I will attend the meeting at the Duke of Orleans' to-morrow, and the gales of La Fronde must blow fairer than they do now for me to sail by. The safe way will be to leave Paris;—but then that lovely Francesca! I am much mistaken if the least hint, backed by that high-sounding word duty, will not be sufficient excuse for absence; and if