"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 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 bargaining for my place of superintendent.Make yourself easy on that head, my dear marquise; he is not yet rich 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?"
