Page:Manzoni - The Betrothed, 1834.djvu/81

 will soon set him right. He has his eye every where, I say, and unlimited power; and if it is his policy that the Signor Duke of Nevers should not take root in Mantua, he will never flourish there, he assured. It makes me laugh to see the Signor Cardinal de Richelieu contend with an Olivares. The Count Duke, gentlemen," pursued he, with the wind still in his favour, and much wondering at not meeting with opposition, "the Count Duke is an old fox—speaking with due respect—who would make any one lose his track: when he appears to go to the right, it would be safest to follow him to the left: no one can boast of knowing his designs; they who are to execute them, they who write the despatches, know nothing of them. I speak from authority, for the keeper of the castle deigns to confide in me. The Count Duke knows well enough how the pot boils in all the courts in Europe; and these politicians have hardly laid a plan, but he begins to frustrate it. That poor man, the Cardinal Richelieu, attempts and dissembles, toils and strives; and what does it all produce? When he has dug the mine, he finds a countermine already prepared by the Count Duke"

None can tell when the magistrate would have cast anchor, if Don Roderick had not interrupted him. "Signor Podestà," said he, "and you, gentlemen, a bumper to the Count Duke, and you shall then judge if the wine is worthy of the personage." The podestà bowed low in gratitude for an honour he considered as paid to himself in part for his eloquent harangue.

"May Don Gaspero Guzman, Count de Olivares, Duke of St. Lucar, live a thousand years!" said he, raising his glass.

"May he live a thousand years!" exclaimed all the company.

"Help the father," said Don Roderick.

"Excuse me," replied he, "I could not"

"How!" said Don Roderick; "will you not drink to the Count Duke? Would you have us believe that you hold to the Navarre party?"

This was the contemptuous term applied to the French interest at the time of Henry IV.