"
The Marshal shifted his saber around and drew his knees together.
"I return the compliment," frankly. "I have never feared you; I
have distrusted you."
"And why distrusted?"
"Because Leopold of Osia would never have forsaken his
birthright, nor looked toward a throne, had you not pointed the
way and coveted the archbishopric."
"I wished only to make him great;" but the prelate lowered his eyes.
"And share his greatness," was the shrewd rejoinder. "I am an
old man, and frankness in old age is pardonable. There are
numbers of disinterested men in the world, but unfortunately
they happen to be dead. O, I do not blame you; there is human
nature in most of us. But the days of Richelieus and Mazarins
are past. The Church is simply the church, and is no longer the
power behind the throne. I have served the house of Auersperg
for fifty years, that is to say, since I was sixteen; I had
hoped to die in the service. Perhaps my own reason for
distrusting you has not been disinterested."
"Perhaps not."
"And as I now stand I shall die neither in the service of the
house of Auersperg nor of Osia. It is not the princess; it is
the lonely girl.
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