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Yet however difficult it is to reconcile such avowed motives with the known facts, the avowal always has about it a tone of conviction which can only have been the outcome of successful self-deception. It was the Cardinal's task then to procure by some means a formal and authoritative pronouncement that the Papal Dispensation was invalid.
They now saw a tall, manly form hastening down the alley directly toward the pope. "Who is it?" asked Ganganelli, half turning toward Lorenzo, who was following him. "It is Juan Angelo Braschi, the former treasurer, to whom you yesterday sent the cardinal's hat." "Ah, the beautiful Braschi," sadly murmured Ganganelli. "The beloved of the favorite of my nephew, of the Cardinal Rezzonico.
It may be judged by this single anecdote, what the character of Colbert was. Events, developing themselves, by degrees allowed all the powers of his mind to act freely. Colbert was not long in insinuating himself into the good graces of the cardinal: he became even indispensable to him. The clerk was acquainted with all his accounts without the cardinal's ever having spoken to him about them.
When Madame Cerizet saw that she had to do with a small, old man of puny appearance, she flung herself before him with flaming eyes, like a lioness from whom the hunter is seeking to take her cubs. "Be calm, my good woman," said the little man, in a jeering tone; "the police are sent for; they will be here in a moment." At the word "police" the Cardinal's legs gave way.
The librarian of a German count was a desirable member of a cardinal's household, and immediately found himself at home there. Libraries were real treasure-houses, instead of being, as now, with the rapid progress of the sciences and the useful and useless accumulation of printed matter nothing more than useful store-rooms and useless lumber-rooms.
But, though he held the cardinal's promises as of little worth, he affected to be completely satisfied, for he was unwilling to discourage Porthos. Whilst the two friends were with the cardinal, the queen sent for him. Mazarin, thinking that it would be the means of increasing the zeal of his two defenders if he procured them personal thanks from the queen, motioned them to follow him.
"Are there many Jewish ladies who aspire to be baptized and become Catholics, as Bourget says?" asked Susanna. "Bah!" exclaimed Caesar. "You do not believe that either?" "No, it strikes me as a piece of naivety in this good soul of a novelist. To become a Catholic, I don't believe requires more than some few pesetas." "You are detestable, as a Cardinal's nephew."
Cagliostro doubtless lowered the Cardinal's moral and mental tone, but it does not appear that he had any connection with the great final swindle. In his supernormal gifts and graces the Cardinal did steadfastly believe. Ten years earlier, Rohan had blessed Marie Antoinette on her entry into France, and had been ambassador at the Court of Maria Theresa, the Empress.
The Cesarini was alone when the Cardinal's messenger arrived, and he was scarcely dismissed with a few lines, expressive of a gratitude which seemed to bear down all those guards with which the coldness of the Signora usually fenced her pride, before the page Angelo was summoned to her presence.
And they plundered all the goods of Cardinal Colonna, his plate, his robes, his tapestries, his chests of linen, and they even carried off his cardinal's hat. So the Protonotary, on the faith of Orsini, was led away to the Pope in his doublet, but some one lent him a black cloak on the way.
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