“Yes, a secret.”
“A secret of such a nature as to change his Majesty’s interests?”
“You are indeed a man of superior intelligence, Monseigneur, and have made a very accurate guess. I have, in fact, discovered a secret of a nature to change the interests of the King of France.”
“Ah!” said Fouquet, with the reserve of a man who does not wish to ask questions.
“And you shall judge of it yourself,” pursued Aramis; “and you shall tell me if I am mistaken with regard to the importance of this secret.”
“I am listening, since you are good enough to unbosom yourself to me; only do not forget that I have asked you nothing which may be indiscreet in you to communicate.”
Aramis seemed for a moment as if he were collecting himself.
“Do not speak!” said Fouquet; “there is still time enough.”
“Do you remember,” said the bishop, casting down his eyes, “the birth of Louis XIV?”
“As it were yesterday.”
“Have you ever heard anything particular respecting his birth?”
“Nothing; except that the King was not really the son of Louis XIII.”
“That does not matter to us, or the kingdom either; he is the son of his father, says the French law, whose father is recognized by the law.”
“True; but it is a grave matter when the quality of races is called into question.”
“A merely secondary question, after all. So that, in fact, you have never learned or heard anything in particular?”
“Nothing.”
“That is where my secret begins. The Queen, you must know, instead of being delivered of one son, was delivered of two children.”
Fouquet looked up suddenly as he replied, “And the second is dead?”
“You will see. These twins seemed likely to be regarded as the pride of their mother and the hope of France; but the weak nature of the King, his superstitious feelings, made him apprehend a series of conflicts between two children whose rights were equal. He suppressed one of the twins.”
“Suppressed, do you say?”
“Listen. Both the children grew up,- the one on the throne, whose minister you are; the other, who is my friend, in gloom and isolation.”
“Good heavens! What are you saying, M. d’Herblay? And what is this poor Prince doing?”
“Ask me, rather, what he has done.”
“Yes, yes.”
“He was brought up in the country, and then thrown into a fortress which goes by the name of the Bastille.”
“Is it possible?” cried the superintendent, clasping his hands.
“The one was the most fortunate of men; the other the most unhappy of miserable beings.”
“Does his mother not know this?”
“Anne of Austria knows it all.”
“And the King?”
“Knows absolutely nothing.”
“So much the better!” said Fouquet.
This remark seemed to make a great impression on Aramis; he looked at Fouquet with an anxious expression.
“I beg your pardon; I interrupted you,” said Fouquet.
“I was saying,” resumed Aramis, “that this poor Prince was the unhappiest of men, when God, whose thoughts are over all his creatures, undertook to come to his assistance.”
“Oh! in what way?”
“You will see. The reigning King,- I say the reigning King: you can guess very well why?”
“No. Why?”
“Because being alike legitimately entitled from their birth, both ought to have been kings. Is not that your opinion?”
“It is, certainly.”
“Unreservedly so?”
“Most unreservedly; twins are one person in two bodies.”
“I am pleased that a legist of your learning and authority should have pronounced such an opinion. It is agreed, then, that both of them possessed the same rights, is it not?”
“Incontestably so! but, gracious heavens, what an extraordinary circumstance!”
“We are not at the end of it yet. Patience!”
“Oh, I shall find ‘patience’ enough.”
“God wished to raise up for that oppressed child an avenger, or a supporter, if you prefer it. It happened that the reigning King, the usurper- you are quite of my opinion, are you not, that it is an act of usurpation for one quietly to enjoy, and selfishly to assume the right over, an inheritance of which at most only a half belongs to him?”
“Yes; usurpation is the word.”
“I continue, then. It was God’s will that the usurper should possess, in the person of his first minister, a man of great talent, of large and generous nature.”