tell it to you instantly, and not to allow myself to be
turned aside by any feeling whatever. Fouquet, my friend! it
is of immense importance!”
“You astonish me, marquise; I will even say you almost
frighten me. You, so serious, so collected; you who know the
world we live in so well. Is it, then important?”
Page 323
Dumas, Alexandre – Ten Years Later
“Oh! very important.”
“In the first place, how did you come here?”
“You shall know that presently; but first to something of
more consequence.”
“Speak, marquise, speak! I implore you, have pity on my
impatience.”
“Do you know that Colbert is made intendant of the
finances?”
“Bah! Colbert, little Colbert.”
“Yes, Colbert, little Colbert.”
“Mazarin’s factotum?”
“The same.”
“Well! what do you see so terrific in that, dear marquise?
little Colbert is intendant; that is astonishing, I confess,
but is not terrific.”
“Do you think the king has given, without a pressing motive,
such a place to one you call a little cuistre?”
“In the first place, is it positively true that the king has
given it to him?”
“It is so said.”
“Ay, but who says so?”
“Everybody.”
“Everybody, that’s nobody; mention some one likely to be
well informed who says so.”
“Madame Vanel.”
“Ah! now you begin to frighten me in earnest,” said Fouquet,
laughing; “if any one is well informed, or ought to be well
informed, it is the person you name.”
“Do not speak ill of poor Marguerite, Monsieur Fouquet, for
she still loves you.”
“Bah! indeed? That is scarcely credible. I thought little
Colbert, as you said just now, had passed over that love,
and left the impression upon it of a spot of ink or a stain
of grease.”
“Fouquet! Fouquet! Is this the way you always treat the poor
creatures you desert?”
“Why, you surely are not going to undertake the defense of
Madame Vanel?”
“Yes, I will undertake it: for, I repeat, she loves you
still, and the proof is she saves you.”
“But your interposition, marquise; that is very cunning on
Page 324
Dumas, Alexandre – Ten Years Later
her part. No angel could be more agreeable to me, or could
lead me more certainly to salvation. But, let me ask you do
you know Marguerite?”
“She was my convent friend.”
“And you say that she has informed you that Monsieur Colbert
was named intendant?”
“Yes, she did.”
“Well, enlighten me, marquise; granted Monsieur Colbert is
intendant — so be it. In what can an intendant, that is to
say my subordinate, my clerk, give me umbrage or injure me,
even if he is Monsieur Colbert?”
“You do not reflect, monsieur, apparently,” replied the
marquise.
“Upon what?”
“This: that Monsieur Colbert hates you.”
“Hates me?” cried Fouquet. “Good heavens! marquise, whence
do you come? where can you live? Hates me! why all the world
hates me, he, of course as others do.”
“He more than others.”
“More than others — let him.”
“He is ambitious.”
“Who is not, marquise?”
“‘Yes, but with him ambition has no bounds.”
“I am quite aware of that, since he made it a point to
succeed me with Madame Vanel.”
“And obtained his end; look at that.”
“Do you mean to say he has the presumption to hope to pass
from intendant to superintendent?”
“Have you not yourself already had the same fear?”
“Oh! oh!” said Fouquet, “to succeed with Madame Vanel is one
thing, to succeed me with the king is another. France is not
to be purchased so easily as the wife of a maitre des
comptes.”
“Eh! monsieur, everything is to be bought; if not by gold,
by intrigue.”
“Nobody knows to the contrary better than you, madame, you
to whom I have offered millions.”
“Instead of millions, Fouquet, you should have offered me a
true, only and boundless love: I might have accepted that.
So you see, still, everything is to be bought, if not in one
way, by another.”
“So, Colbert, in your opinion, is in a fair way of
Page 325
Dumas, Alexandre – Ten Years Later
bargaining for my place of superintendent. Make yourself
easy on that head, my dear marquise; he is not yet rich