“Denounce? Oh, what a disagreeable word! I shall not denounce, my dear friend. You now know matters of policy too well to be ignorant how easily these affairs are arranged. I shall merely side against M. Fouquet, and nothing more; and in a war of party against party a weapon is a weapon.”
“No doubt.”
“And once on friendly terms again with the Queen-Mother, I may be dangerous towards some persons.”
“You are at perfect liberty to be so, Duchess.”
“A liberty of which I shall avail myself, my dear friend.”
“You are not ignorant, I suppose, Duchess, that M. Fouquet is on the best terms with the King of Spain?”
“Oh, I suppose so!”
“If, therefore, you begin a party warfare against M. Fouquet, he will reply in the same way; for he too is at perfect liberty to do so, is he not?”
“Oh, certainly!”
“And as he is on good terms with Spain, he will make use of that friendship as a weapon.”
“You mean that he will be on good terms with the general of the order of the Jesuits, my dear Aramis.”
“That may be the case, Duchess.”
“And that, consequently, the pension I have been receiving from the order will be stopped.”
“I am greatly afraid it might be.”
“Well, I must contrive to console myself; for after Richelieu, after the Frondes, after exile, what is there left for Madame de Chevreuse to fear?”
“The pension, you are aware, is forty-eight thousand livres.”
“Alas! I am quite aware of it.”
“Moreover, in party contests, you know, the friends of the enemy do not escape.”
“Ah! you mean that poor Laicques will have to suffer.”
“I am afraid it is almost inevitable, Duchess.”
“Oh, he receives only twelve thousand livres’ pension.”
“Yes, but the King of Spain has some influence left; advised by M. Fouquet, he might get M. Laicques shut up in some fortress.”
“I have no great fear of that, my good friend; because, thanks to a reconciliation with Anne of Austria, I will undertake that France shall insist upon Laicques’s liberation.”
“True. In that case you will have something else to apprehend.”
“What can that be?” said the duchess, pretending to be surprised and terrified.
“You will learn- indeed, you must know it already- that having once been an affiliated member of the order, it is not easy to leave it; for the secrets that any particular member may have acquired are unwholesome, and carry with them the germs of misfortune for whoever may reveal them.”
The duchess considered for a moment, and then said, “That is more serious; I will think it over.”
Notwithstanding the profound obscurity in which he sat, Aramis seemed to feel a burning glance, like a hot iron, escape from his friend’s eyes and plunge into his heart.
“Let us recapitulate,” said Aramis, determined to keep himself on his guard, and gliding his hand into his breast, where he had a dagger concealed.
“Exactly, let us recapitulate; good accounts make good friends.”
“The suppression of your pension-”
“Forty-eight thousand livres and that of Laicques’s twelve make together sixty thousand livres; that is what you mean, I suppose?”
“Precisely; and I was trying to find out what would be your equivalent for that.”
“Five hundred thousand livres, which I shall get from the Queen.”
“Or which you will not get.”
“I know a means of procuring them,” said the duchess, thoughtlessly.
This remark made the chevalier prick up his ears; and from the moment when his adversary had committed this error, his mind was so thoroughly on its guard that he seemed every moment to gain the advantage more and more, and she, consequently, to lose it. “I will admit, for argument’s sake, that you obtain the money,” he resumed; “you will lose twice as much, having a hundred thousand livres’ pension to receive instead of sixty thousand, and that for a period of ten years.”
“Not so, for I shall only be subjected to this diminution of my income during the period of M. Fouquet’s remaining in power,- a period which I estimate at two months.”
“Ah!” said Aramis.
“I am frank, you see.”
“I thank you for it, Duchess; but you would be wrong to suppose that after M. Fouquet’s disgrace the order would resume the payment of your pension.”