Belle Rose: A Romance of the Cloak and Sword — page 212: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

198 THE ARGUMENTS OF A MINISTER. ‘“‘You have taken from him papers which were destined to me?’”’ ‘‘T have paid for papers which were for sale.”’ ‘‘But I had purchased these papers?’’ ‘In a similar affair, the thing belongs to him who pre- sents himself first.”’ ‘‘Hh, monsieur, you have some audacity,’’ said the min- ister, ironically; ‘‘but I will know how to draw from you what I wish.’’ ‘‘That depends on what you wish.’’ There was a moment’s silence, during which the two interlocutors examined each other. Monsieur de Louvois was the first to break it. ‘‘You have burned these papers, monsieur?’’ ‘*Yes, monsiegneur.’”° SS ATED? oS me EE. 99 ‘‘Did you learn their contents?’’ ‘‘No, monseigneur.’’ ‘‘But you suspected, then, what they contained, since you have made such haste to secure their disappearance. ’”’ ‘‘Y might suppose at least that they had some import- ance, seeing the haste with which I was pursued.’’ ‘‘And you are not deceived. You would not be here were it not the case.’’ ‘‘T slightly suspect it.’’ ‘‘A word can draw you from it, monsieur.’’ ‘“‘Only one, monseigneur?’’ ‘Only one. You see that my conditions are light.’’ ‘‘Kh! monseigneur, there are words which are worth heads.”’ ‘Take care, also, that silence does not endanger yours.’’ Monsieur de Louvois was getting angry; as to Belle- Rose, he lost nothing of his calm and proud tranquillity. ‘‘Let us dismiss that!’’ resumed the minister, ‘‘the question is whether or not you wish to save your head.”’ ‘‘Is it threatened, monseigneur?”’ ‘‘More, perhaps, than you think.”’ ‘‘And all this because 1 have paid a hundred thousand livres for those papers which I have not read. Blood for ink, you are lavish, monseigneur.’”’ ‘‘A word can save you,’’ said Monsieur de Louvois, who could hardly restrain his anger. ‘And what is the word?’’ ‘"The name of the person for whom you carried off these papers. ’”’ g * 4 a Gomicbooks.com —