Page:The Vicomte de Bragelonne 2.djvu/504

492 "It' I were to deprive him of his charge?"

"A bad means, sire."

"The good— the good, then?"

"Ruin him, sire; that is the way."

"But how?"

"Occasions will not be wanting, take advantage of all occasions."

"Point them out to me."

"Here is one at once. His Royal Highness Monsieur is about to be married; his nuptials must be magnificent. That is a good occasion for your majesty to demand a million of Monsieur Fouquet. Monsieur Fouquet, who pays twenty thousand livres down, when he need not pay more than five thousand, will easily find that million when your majesty shall demand it."

"That is all very well; I will demand it," said Louis.

"If your majesty will sign the ordonnance, I will have the money taken myself." And Colbert pushed a paper before the king, and presented a pen to him.

At that moment the usher opened the door and announced Monsieur le Surintendant. Louis turned pale. Colbert let the pen fall, and drew back from the king, over whom he extended his black wings of a bad angel. The surintendant made his entrance like a man of the court, to whom a single glance was sufficient to make him appreciate his situation. That situation was not very encouraging for Fouquet, wha f ever might be the consciousness of his strength. The small black eye of Colbert, dilated by envy, and the limpid eve of Louis XIV., inflamed by anger, signaled a pressing danger. Courtiers are, with regard to court rumors, like old soldiers, who distinguish through blasts of wind and moaning of leaves the sound of the distant step of an armed troop. They can, after having listened, tell pretty nearly how many men are marching, how many arms resound, how many cannons roll. Fouquet had, then, only to interrogate the silence which his arrival had produced; he found it big Avith menacing revelations. The king allowed him quite time enough to advance as far as the middle of the chamber. His adolescent modesty commanded this forbearance of the moment. Fouquet boldly seized the opportunty.

"Sire," said he, "I was impatient to see your majesty."

"What for?" asked Louis.

"To announce some good news to you."

Colbert, in grandeur of person, legs lameness oi heart,