“I cannot do it,” said Vanel, hoarsely.
“Very well,” replied Aramis, who had grasped Vanel so tightly by the coat that when he let go his hold Vanel staggered back a few paces,- “very well; one can now see clearly enough your object in coming here.”
“Yes,” said Fouquet, “one can easily see that.”
“But-” said Vanel, attempting to stand erect before the weakness of these two men of honor.
“The fellow presumes to speak!” said Aramis, with the tone of an emperor.
“Fellow?” repeated Vanel.
“The wretch, I meant to say,” added the prelate, who had now resumed his usual self-possession. “Come, Monsieur, produce your deed of sale! You should have it there, in one of your pockets, already prepared, as an assassin holds his pistol or his dagger concealed, under his cloak.”
Vanel began to mutter something.
“Enough!” cried Fouquet. “Where is this deed?”
Vanel tremblingly searched in his pockets; and as he drew out his pocketbook, a paper fell out of it, while Vanel offered the other to Fouquet. Aramis pounced upon the paper which had fallen out, the handwriting of which he recognized.
“I beg your pardon,” said Vanel; “that is a rough draught of the deed.”
“I see that very clearly,” retorted Aramis, with a smile more cutting than a lash of a whip would have been; “and what surprises me is that this draught is in M. Colbert’s handwriting. Look, Monseigneur, look!” And he handed the paper to Fouquet, who recognized the truth of his remark; for, covered with erasures, with inserted words, the margins filled with additions, this deed- an open proof of Colbert’s plot- had just revealed everything to its unhappy victim.
“Well!” murmured Fouquet.
Vanel, completely humiliated, seemed as if he were looking for some deep hole where he could hide himself.
“Well!” said Aramis, “if your name were not Fouquet, and if your enemy’s name were not Colbert,- if you had to deal only with this mean thief before you, I should say to you, ‘Repudiate it!’ Such a proof as this absolves you from your word. But these fellows would think you were afraid; they would fear you less than they do; therefore sign, Monseigneur!” and he held out a pen towards him.
Fouquet pressed Aramis’s hand; but instead of the deed which Vanel handed to him, he took the rough draught of it.
“No, not that paper,” said Aramis, hastily; “this is the one. The other is too precious a document for you to part with.”
“No, no!” replied Fouquet. “I will sign upon the paper of M. Colbert; and I write, ‘The writing is approved.'” He then signed, and said, “Here it is, M. Vanel”; and the latter seized the paper, laid down his money, and was about to retreat.
“One moment!” said Aramis. “Are you quite sure the exact amount is there? It ought to be counted over, M. Vanel, particularly since it is money which M. Colbert presents to the ladies. Ah, that worthy M. Colbert is not so generous as M. Fouquet!” and Aramis, spelling every word, every letter of the order to pay, distilled his wrath and his contempt, drop by drop, upon the miserable wretch, who had to submit to this torture for a quarter of an hour. He was then dismissed, not in words, but by a gesture, as one dismisses a beggar or discharges a menial.
As soon as Vanel had gone, the minister and the prelate, their eyes fixed on each other, remained silent for a few moments.
“Well,” said Aramis, the first to break the silence, “to what can that man be compared, who, entering into a conflict with an enemy armed from head to foot, thirsting for his life, strips himself, throws down his arms, and sends kisses to his adversary? Good faith, M. Fouquet, is a weapon which scoundrels very frequently make use of against men of honor, and it answers their purpose. Men of honor ought in their turn, also, to make use of bad faith against such scoundrels. You would soon see how strong they would become without ceasing to be men of honor.”
“It would be rascally conduct,” replied Fouquet.
“Not at all; it would be merely coquetting or playing with the truth. And now, since you have finished with this Vanel, since you have deprived yourself of the happiness of confounding him by repudiating your word, and since you have given up, to be used against yourself, the only weapon which can ruin us-“