“But I have not given my sanction.”
“M. de Lyonne has ratified for you.”
“I will go to the Louvre.”
“Oh, no, you will not.”
“Would you advise such baseness?” cried Fouquet, “would you
advise me to abandon my friends? would you advise me, whilst
able to fight, to throw the arms I hold in my hand to the
ground?”
“I do not advise you to do anything of the kind,
monseigneur. Are you in a position to quit the post of
superintendent at this moment?”
“No.”
“Well, if the king wishes to displace you —- ”
“He will displace me absent as well as present.”
“Yes, but you will not have insulted him.”
“Yes, but I shall have been base; now I am not willing that
my friends should die; and they shall not die!”
“For that it is necessary you should go to the Louvre, is it
not?”
“Gourville!”
“Beware! once at the Louvre, you will be forced to defend
your friends openly, that is to say, to make a profession of
faith; or you will be forced to abandon them irrevocably.”
“Never!”
“Pardon me, — the king will propose the alternative to you,
rigorously, or else you will propose it to him yourself.”
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Dumas, Alexandre – Ten Years Later
“That is true.”
“That is the reason why conflict must be avoided. Let us
return to Saint-Mande, monseigneur.”
“Gourville, I will not stir from this place, where the crime
is to be carried out, where my disgrace is to be
accomplished; I will not stir, I say, till I have found some
means of combating my enemies.”
“Monseigneur,” replied Gourville, “you would excite my pity,
if I did not know you for one of the great spirits of this
world. You possess a hundred and fifty millions, you are
equal to the king in position, and a hundred and fifty
millions his superior in money. M. Colbert has not even had
the wit to have the will of Mazarin accepted. Now, when a
man is the richest person in a kingdom, and will take the
trouble to spend the money, if things are done he does not
like it is because he is a poor man. Let us return to
Saint-Mande, I say.”
“To consult with Pellisson? — we will.”
“So be it,” said Fouquet, with angry eyes; — “yes, to
Saint-Mande!” He got into his carriage again and Gourville
with him. Upon their road, at the end of the Faubourg
Saint-Antoine, they overtook the humble equipage of Vatel,
who was quietly conveying home his vin de Joigny. The black
horses, going at a swift pace, alarmed as they passed, the
timid hack of the maitre d’hotel, who, putting his head out
at the window, cried, in a fright, “Take care of my
bottles!”
CHAPTER 57
The Gallery of Saint-Mande
Fifty persons were waiting for the superintendent. He did
not even take the time to place himself in the hands of his
valet de chambre for a minute, but from the perron went
straight into the premier salon. There his friends were
assembled in full chat. The intendant was about to order
supper to be served, but, above all, the Abbe Fouquet
watched for the return of his brother, and was endeavoring
to do the honors of the house in his absence. Upon the
arrival of the superintendent, a murmur of joy and affection
was heard; Fouquet, full of affability, good humor, and
munificence, was beloved by his poets, his artists, and his
men of business. His brow, upon which his little court read,
as upon that of a god, all the movements of his soul, and
thence drew rules of conduct, — his brow, upon which
affairs of state never impressed a wrinkle, was this evening
paler than usual, and more than one friendly eye remarked
that pallor. Fouquet placed himself at the head of the
table, and presided gayly during supper. He recounted
Vatel’s expedition to La Fontaine, related the history of
Menneville and the skinny fowl to Pellisson, in such a
manner that all the table heard it. A tempest of laughter
and jokes ensued, which was only checked by a serious and
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