"Yes, sire, a particular friend of the intendant Colbert," added Fouquet; letting every word fall from his lips with the most inimitable nonchalance, and with an admirably a.s.sumed expression of forgetfulness and ignorance. And having finished, and having overwhelmed Colbert beneath the weight of this superiority, the superintendent again saluted the king and quitted the room, partially revenged by the stupefaction of the king and the humiliation of the favorite.
"Is it really possible," said the king, as soon as Fouquet had disappeared, "that he has sold that office?"
"Yes, sire," said Colbert, meaningly.
"He must be mad," the king added.
Colbert this time did not reply; he had penetrated the king"s thought, a thought which amply revenged him for the humiliation he had just been made to suffer; his hatred was augmented by a feeling of bitter jealousy of Fouquet; and a threat of disgrace was now added to the plan he had arranged for his ruin. Colbert felt perfectly a.s.sured that for the future, between Louis XIV. and himself, their hostile feelings and ideas would meet with no obstacles, and that at the first fault committed by Fouquet, which could be laid hold of as a pretext, the chastis.e.m.e.nt so long impending would be precipitated. Fouquet had thrown aside his weapons of defense, and hate and jealousy had picked them up. Colbert was invited by the king to the _fete_ at Vaux; he bowed like a man confident in himself, and accepted the invitation with the air of one who almost confers a favor. The king was about writing down Saint-Aignan"s name on his list of royal commands, when the usher announced the Comte de Saint-Aignan. As soon as the royal "Mercury"
entered, Colbert discreetly withdrew.
Chapter LVII. Rivals in Love.
Saint-Aignan had quitted Louis XIV. hardly a couple of hours before; but in the first effervescence of his affection, whenever Louis XIV. was out of sight of La Valliere, he was obliged to talk about her. Besides, the only person with whom he could speak about her at his ease was Saint-Aignan, and thus Saint-Aignan had become an indispensable.
"Ah, is that you, comte?" he exclaimed, as soon as he perceived him, doubly delighted, not only to see him again, but also to get rid of Colbert, whose scowling face always put him out of humor. "So much the better, I am very glad to see you. You will make one of the best traveling party, I suppose?"
"Of what traveling part are you speaking, sire?" inquired Saint-Aignan.
"The one we are making up to go to the _fete_ the superintendent is about to give at Vaux. Ah! Saint-Aignan, you will, at last, see a _fete_, a royal _fete_, by the side of which all our amus.e.m.e.nts at Fontainebleau are petty, contemptible affairs."
"At Vaux! the superintendent going to give a _fete_ in your majesty"s honor? Nothing more than that!"
""Nothing more than that," do you say? It is very diverting to find you treating it with so much disdain. Are you who express such an indifference on the subject, aware, that as soon as it is known that M.
Fouquet is going to receive me at Vaux next Sunday week, people will be striving their very utmost to get invited to the _fete?_ I repeat, Saint-Aignan, you shall be one of the invited guests."
"Very well, sire; unless I shall, in the meantime, have undertaken a longer and a less agreeable journey."
"What journey do you allude to?"
"The one across the Styx, sire."
"Bah!" said Louis XIV., laughing.
"No, seriously, sire," replied Saint-Aignan, "I am invited; and in such a way, in truth, that I hardly know what to say, or how to act, in order to refuse the invitation."
"I do not understand you. I know that you are in a poetical vein; but try not to sink from Apollo to Phoebus."
"Very well; if your majesty will deign to listen to me, I will not keep your mind on the rack a moment longer."
"Speak."
"Your majesty knows the Baron du Vallon?"
"Yes, indeed; a good servant to my father, the late king, and an admirable companion at table; for, I think, you are referring to the gentleman who dined with us at Fontainebleau?"
"Precisely so; but you have omitted to add to his other qualifications, sire, that he is a most charming polisher-off of other people."
"What! Does M. du Vallon wish to polish you off?"
"Or to get me killed, which is much the same thing."
"The deuce!"
"Do not laugh, sire, for I am not saying one word beyond the exact truth."
"And you say he wishes to get you killed."
"Such is that excellent person"s present idea."
"Be easy; I will defend you, if he be in the wrong."
"Ah! There is an "if"!"
"Of course; answer me as candidly as if it were some one else"s affair instead of your own, my poor Saint-Aignan; is he right or wrong?"
"Your majesty shall be the judge."
"What have you done to him?"
"To him, personally, nothing at all; but, it seems, to one of his friends, I have."
"It is all the same. Is his friend one of the celebrated "four"?"
"No. It is the son of one of the celebrated "four," though."
"What have you done to the son? Come, tell me."
"Why, it seems that I have helped some one to take his mistress from him."
"You confess it, then?"
"I cannot help confessing it, for it is true."
"In that case, you are wrong; and if he were to kill you, he would be doing perfectly right."
"Ah! that is your majesty"s way of reasoning, then!"
"Do you think it a bad way?"
"It is a very expeditious way, at all events."
""Good justice is prompt;" so my grandfather Henry IV. used to say."
"In that case, your majesty will, perhaps, be good enough to sign my adversary"s pardon, for he is now waiting for me at the Minimes, for the purpose of putting me out of my misery."
"His name, and a parchment!"