Page:The Man in the Iron Mask.djvu/118

 "Is he not a charming host?"

"No one could be more so."

"I am told that the king began by showing a great distance in his manner toward Monsieur Fouquet, but that his majesty became much more cordial afterward."

"You did not notice it, then, since you say you have been told so?"

"No; I was engaged with those gentlemen who have just left the room about the theatrical performances and the tournaments which are to take place to-morrow."

"Ah, indeed! you are the comptroller-general of the fêtes here, then?"

"You know I am a friend of all kinds of amusement where the exercise of the imagination is required; I have always been a poet in one way or another."

"Yes, I remember the verses you used to write; they were charming."

"I have forgotten them, but I am delighted to read the verses of others, when those others are known by the names of Molière, Pellisson, La Fontaine, etc."

"Do you know what idea occurred to me this evening, Aramis?"

"No; tell me what it was, for I should never be able to guess it, you have so many."

"Well, the idea occurred to me that the true King of France is not Louis XIV."

"What!" said Aramis involuntarily, looking the musketeer full in the eyes.

"No; it is Monsieur Fouquet."

Aramis breathed again, and smiled.

"Ah! you are like all the rest, jealous!" he said. "I would wager that it was Monsieur Colbert who turned that pretty phrase."

D'Artagnan, in order to throw Aramis off his guard, related Colbert's misadventure with regard to the vin de Melun.

"He comes of a mean race, does Colbert," said Aramis.

"Quite true."

"When I think, too," added the bishop, "that that fellow will be your minister within four months, and that you will serve him as blindly as you did Richelieu or Mazarin"

"And as you serve Monsieur Fouquet," said D'Artagnan.

"With the difference, though, that Monsieur Fouquet is not Monsieur Colbert."

"True, true," said D'Artagnan, as he pretended to be-