that a man who has just made such a present has a good right
to expect to be thanked for it with some degree of
promptitude.” Then turning towards Fouquet: “Is not that
likewise your opinion, monsieur?”
“That the present is worth the trouble? Yes madame,” said
Fouquet, with a lofty air that did not escape the king.
Page 272
Dumas, Alexandre – Ten Years Later
“Accept, then, and thank him,” insisted Anne of Austria.
“What says M. Fouquet?” asked Louis XIV.
“Does your majesty wish to know my opinion?”
“Yes.”
“Thank him, sire —- ”
“Ah!” said the queen.
“But do not accept,” continued Fouquet.
“And why not?” asked the queen.
“You have yourself said why, madame,” replied Fouquet;
“because kings cannot and ought not to receive presents from
their subjects.”
The king remained silent between these two contrary
opinions.
“But forty millions!” said Anne of Austria, in the same tone
as that in which, at a later period, poor Marie Antoinette
replied, “You will tell me as much!”
“I know,” said Fouquet, laughing, “forty millions makes a
good round sum, — such a sum as could almost tempt a royal
conscience.”
“But monsieur,” said Anne of Austria, “instead of persuading
the king not to receive this present, recall to his
majesty’s mind, you, whose duty it is, that these forty
millions are a fortune to him.”
“It is precisely, madame, because these forty millions would
be a fortune that I will say to the king, `Sire, if it be
not decent for a king to accept from a subject six horses,
worth twenty thousand livres, it would be disgraceful for
him to owe a fortune to another subject, more or less
scrupulous in the choice of the materials which contributed
to the building up of that fortune.'”
“It ill becomes you, monsieur, to give your king a lesson,”
said Anne of Austria; “better procure for him forty millions
to replace those you make him lose.”
“The king shall have them whenever he wishes,” said the
superintendent of finances, bowing.
“Yes, by oppressing the people,” said the queen.
“And were they not oppressed, madame,” replied Fouquet,
“when they were made to sweat the forty millions given by
this deed? Furthermore, his majesty has asked my opinion, I
have given it; if his majesty ask my concurrence, it will be
the same.”
“Nonsense! accept, my son, accept,” said Anne of Austria.
“You are above reports and interpretations.”
“Refuse, sire,” said Fouquet. “As long as a king lives, he
has no other measure but his conscience, — no other judge
Page 273
Dumas, Alexandre – Ten Years Later
than his own desires; but when dead, he has posterity, which
applauds or accuses.”
“Thank you, mother,” replied Louis, bowing respectfully to
the queen. “Thank you, Monsieur Fouquet,” said he,
dismissing the superintendent civilly.
“Do you accept?” asked Anne of Austria, once more.
“I shall consider of it,” replied he, looking at Fouquet.
CHAPTER 48
Agony
The day that the deed of gift had been sent to the king, the
cardinal caused himself to be transported to Vincennes. The
king and the court followed him thither. The last flashes of
this torch still cast splendor enough around to absorb all
other lights in its rays. Besides, as it has been seen, the
faithful satellite of his minister, young Louis XIV.,
marched to the last minute in accordance with his
gravitation. The disease, as Guenaud had predicted, had
become worse; it was no longer an attack of gout, it was an
attack of death; then there was another thing which made
that agony more agonizing still, — and that was the
agitation brought into his mind by the donation he had sent
to the king, and which, according to Colbert, the king ought
to send back unaccepted to the cardinal. The cardinal had,
as we have said, great faith in the predictions of his
secretary; but the sum was a large one, and whatever might
be the genius of Colbert, from time to time the cardinal
thought to himself that the Theatin also might possibly have
been mistaken, and that there was at least as much chance of
his not being damned, as there was of Louis XIV. sending