imputations?"

"Then, it is not true?" cried Eugene, joyfully. "You did not love
the king, mother?"

"Yes, I did love him," said she, calmly, "and loved him as an
Italian alone can love."

Eugene groaned, and covered his face with his hands.

"I do not deny the love," continued the countess, "for it was all
the work of Cardinal Mazarin. He brought me from Italy, and bade me
win the king's heart and become a queen; and when he did so he added
a recommendation to me to be a good, dutiful niece, and never to
forget who it was had helped me to a crown. I saw the youth whom the
cardinal desired me to love: the handsomest, wittiest, and most
accomplished cavalier in France. I obeyed but too willingly, and
Louis became the idol of my life."

"Then it is true that my mother was beloved by the king?" said
Eugene, sternly.

"Beloved by him, but never his mistress!" returned the countess,
proudly. "Yes, he loved me as I did him, with the trust, the
strength, the passion, that are characteristic of a first love. I
was ambitious for him as well as for myself, and would have had him
a monarch in deed as well as in name. I led him away from the
frivolous regions of indolent enjoyment to the starry realms of
poetry, art, and science; and, had Louis ever risen to the fame of
Numa, I should have merited that of Egeria. But this conflicted with