me this?” said Colbert with envy, “everything is explained,
and more favorably for you than for anybody else.”
“You are in error, monsieur l’intendant, I did not at all
come for the purpose of relating that to you.”
“It is an exploit, nevertheless.”
“Oh!” said the musketeer carelessly, “constant habit blunts
the mind.”
“To what do I owe the honor of your visit, then?”
“Simply to this: the king ordered me to come to you.”
“Ah!” said Colbert, recovering himself when he saw
D’Artagnan draw a paper from his pocket; “it is to demand
some money of me?”
“Precisely, monsieur.’
“Have the goodness to wait, if you please, monsieur, till I
have dispatched the report of the watch.”
D’Artagnan turned upon his heel, insolently enough, and
Page 374
Dumas, Alexandre – Ten Years Later
finding himself face to face with Colbert, after his first
turn, he bowed to him as a harlequin would have done; then,
after a second evolution, he directed his steps towards the
door in quick time. Colbert was struck with this pointed
rudeness, to which he was not accustomed. In general, men of
the sword, when they came to his office, had such a want of
money, that though their feet seemed to take root in the
marble, they hardly lost their patience. Was D’Artagnan
going straight to the king? Would he go and describe his
rough reception, or recount his exploit? This was a matter
for grave consideration. At all events, the moment was badly
chosen to send D’Artagnan away, whether he came from the
king, or on his own account. The musketeer had rendered too
great a service, and that too recently, for it to be already
forgotten. Therefore Colbert thought it would be better to
shake off his arrogance and call D’Artagnan back. “Ho!
Monsieur d’Artagnan,” cried Colbert, “what! are you leaving
me thus?”
D’Artagnan turned round: “Why not?” said he, quietly, “we
have no more to say to each other, have we?”
“You have, at least, money to receive, as you have an
order?”
“Who, I? Oh! not at all, my dear Monsieur Colbert.”
“But, monsieur, you have an order. And, in the same manner
as you give a sword-thrust, when you are required, I, on my
part, pay when an order is presented to me. Present yours.”
“It is useless, my dear Monsieur Colbert,” said D’Artagnan,
who inwardly enjoyed this confusion in the ideas of Colbert;
“my order is paid.”
“Paid, by whom?”
“By monsieur le surintendant.”
Colbert grew pale.
“Explain yourself,” said he, in a stifled voice — “if you
are paid why do you show me that paper?”
“In consequence of the word of order of which you spoke to
me so ingeniously just now, dear M. Colbert; the king told
me to take a quarter of the pension he is pleased to make
me.”
“Of me?” said Colbert.
“Not exactly. The king said to me: `Go to M. Fouquet; the
superintendent will, perhaps, have no money, then you will
go and draw it of M. Colbert.'”
The countenance of M. Colbert brightened for a moment; but
it was with his unfortunate physiognomy as with a stormy
sky, sometimes radiant, sometimes dark as night, according
as the lightning gleams or the cloud passes. “Eh! and was
there any money in the superintendent’s coffers?” asked he.
“Why, yes, he could not be badly off for money,” replied
D’Artagnan — “it may be believed, since M. Fouquet, instead
of paying me a quarter or five thousand livres —- ”
Page 375
Dumas, Alexandre – Ten Years Later
“A quarter or five thousand livres!” cried Colbert, struck,
as Fouquet had been, with the generosity of the sum for a
soldier’s pension, “why, that would be a pension of twenty
thousand livres?”
“Exactly, M. Colbert. Peste! you reckon like old Pythagoras;
yes, twenty thousand livres.”
“Ten times the appointment of an intendant of the finances.
I beg to offer you my compliments,” said Colbert, with a
vicious smile.
“Oh!” said D’Artagnan, “the king apologized for giving me so
little; but he promised to make it more hereafter, when he
should be rich; but I must be gone, having much to do —- ”
“So, then, notwithstanding the expectation of the king, the