enough to purchase it.”
“But if he should rob you of it?”
“Ah! that is another thing. Unfortunately, before he can
reach me, that is to say, the body of the place, he must
destroy, must make a breach in the advanced works, and I am
devilishly well fortified, marquise.”
“What you call your advanced works are your creatures, are
they not — your friends?”
“Exactly so.”
“And is M. d’Eymeris one of your creatures?”
“Yes, he is.”
“Is M. Lyodot one of your friends?”
“Certainly.”
“M. de Vanin?”
“M. de Vanin! ah! they may do what they like with him, but
—- ”
“But —- ”
“But they must not touch the others!”
“Well, if you are anxious they should not touch MM.
d’Eymeris and Lyodot, it is time to look about you.”
“Who threatens them?”
“Will you listen to me now?”
“Attentively, marquise.”
“Without interrupting me?”
“Speak.”
“Well, this morning Marguerite sent for me.”
“And what did she want with you?”
“`I dare not see M. Fouquet myself,’ said she.”
“Bah! why should she think I would reproach her? Poor woman,
she vastly deceives herself.”
“`See him yourself,’ said she, `and tell him to beware of M.
Colbert.'”
“What! she warned me to beware of her lover?”
“I have told you she still loves you.”
“Go on, marquise.”
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Dumas, Alexandre – Ten Years Later
“`M. Colbert,’ she added, `came to me two hours ago, to
inform me he was appointed intendant.'”
“I have already told you marquise, that M. Colbert would
only be the more in my power for that.”
“Yes, but that is not all: Marguerite is intimate, as you
know, with Madame d’Eymeris and Madame Lyodot.”
“I know it.”
“Well, M. Colbert put many questions to her, relative to the
fortunes of those two gentlemen, and as to the devotion they
had for you.”
“Oh, as to those two, I can answer for them; they must be
killed before they will cease to be mine.”
“Then, as Madame Vanel was obliged to quit M. Colbert for an
instant to receive a visitor, and as M. Colbert is
industrious, scarcely was the new intendant left alone,
before he took a pencil from his pocket, and as there was
paper on the table, began to make notes.”
“Notes concerning d’Eymeris and Lyodot?”
“Exactly.”
“I should like to know what those notes were about.”
“And that is just what I have brought you.”
“Madame Vanel has taken Colbert’s notes and sent them to
me?”
“No, but by a chance which resembles a miracle, she has a
duplicate of those notes.”
“How could she get that?”
“Listen; I told you that Colbert found paper on the table.”
“Yes.”
“That he took a pencil from his pocket.”
“Yes.”
“And wrote upon that paper.”
“Yes.”
“Well, this pencil was a lead-pencil, consequently hard; so
it marked in black upon the first sheet, and in white upon
the second.”
“Go on.”
“Colbert, when tearing off the first sheet, took no notice
of the second.”
“Well?”
“Well, on the second was to be read what had been written on
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Dumas, Alexandre – Ten Years Later
the first, Madame Vanel read it, and sent for me.”
“Yes, yes.”
“Then, when she was assured I was your devoted friend, she
gave me the paper, and told me the secret of this house.”
“And this paper?” said Fouquet, in some degree of agitation.
“Here it is, monsieur — read it,” said the marquise.
Fouquet read:
“Names of the farmers of revenue to be condemned by the
Chamber of Justice: D’Eymeris, friend of M. F.; Lyodot,
friend of M. F.; De Vanin, indif.”
“D’Eymeris and Lyodot!” cried Fouquet, reading the paper
eagerly again.
“Friends of M. F.,” pointed the marquise with her finger.
“But what is the meaning of these words: `To be condemned by
the Chamber of Justice’?”
“Dame!” said the marquise, “that is clear enough, I think.
Besides, that is not all. Read on, read on;” and Fouquet
continued, —“The two first to death, the third to be
dismissed, with MM. d’Hautemont and de la Vallette, who will
only have their property confiscated.”
“Great God!” cried Fouquet, “to death, to death! Lyodot and