'And later in the same psalm, is it not written, "They shall
perish, but thou shalt endure?"'
'It is so,' the father answered. 'Amen.'
'Doubtless though, that refers to another life,' the Cardinal
said, with his slow wintry smile. 'In the meantime we will go
back to our books, and serve God and the King in small things if
not in great. Come, father, this is no longer a place for us.
VANITAS VANITATUM OMNIA VANITAS! We will retire.'
And as solemnly as we had come we marched back through the first
and second and third doors until we stood again in the silence of
the Cardinal's chamber--he and I and the velvet-footed man in
black. For a while Richelieu seemed to forget me. He stood
brooding on the hearth, his eyes on a small fire, which burned
there though the weather was warm. Once I heard him laugh, and
twice he uttered in a tone of bitter mockery the words,--
'Fools! Fools! Fools!'
At last he looked up, saw me, and started.
'Ah!' he said, 'I had forgotten you. Well, you are fortunate,
M. de Berault. Yesterday I had a hundred clients; to-day I have
only one, and I cannot afford to hang him.
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