"I am distressed to be obliged to persist, madame," said Colbert, after a silence which enabled the d.u.c.h.esse to sound the depths of his dissimulation, "but I must warn you that, for the last six years, denunciation after denunciation has been made against M. Fouquet, and he has remained unshaken and unaffected by them."
"There is a time for everything, Monsieur Colbert; those who were the authors of those denunciations were not called Madame de Chevreuse, and they had no proofs equal to the six letters from M. de Mazarin which establish the offense in question."
"The offense!"
"The crime, if you like it better."
"The crime! committed by M. Fouquet!"
"Nothing less. It is rather strange, M. Colbert, but your face, which just now was cold and indifferent, is now positively the very reverse."
"A crime!"
"I am delighted to see that it makes an impression upon you."
"It is because that word, madame, embraces so many things."
"It embraces the post of superintendent of finance for yourself, and a letter of exile, or the Bastile, for M. Fouquet."
"Forgive me, madame la d.u.c.h.esse, but it is almost impossible that M.
Fouquet can be exiled; to be imprisoned or disgraced, that is already a great deal."
"Oh, I am perfectly aware of what I am saying," returned Madame de Chevreuse, coldly. "I do not live at such a distance from Paris as not to know what takes place there. The king does not like M. Fouquet, and he would willingly sacrifice M. Fouquet if an opportunity were only given him."
"It must be a good one, though."
"Good enough, and one I estimate to be worth five hundred thousand francs."
"In what way?" said Colbert.
"I mean, monsieur, that holding this opportunity in my own hands, I will not allow it to be transferred to yours except for a sum of five hundred thousand francs."
"I understand you perfectly, madame. But since you have fixed a price for the sale, let me now see the value of the articles to be sold."
"Oh, a mere trifle; six letters, as I have already told you, from M. de Mazarin; and the autographs will most a.s.suredly not be regarded as too highly priced, if they establish, in an irrefutable manner, that M. Fouquet has embezzled large sums of money from the treasury and appropriated them to his own purposes."
"In an irrefutable manner, do you say?" observed Colbert, whose eyes sparkled with delight.
"Perfectly so; would you like to read the letters?"
"With all my heart! Copies, of course?"
"Of course, the copies," said the d.u.c.h.esse, as she drew from her bosom a small packet of papers flattened by her velvet bodice. "Read," she said.
Colbert eagerly s.n.a.t.c.hed the papers and devoured them. "Excellent!" he said.
"It is clear enough, is it not?"
"Yes, madame, yes; M. Mazarin must have handed the money to M. Fouquet, who must have kept it for his own purposes; but the question is, what money?"
"Exactly,--what money; if we come to terms I will join to these six letters a seventh, which will supply you with the fullest particulars."
Colbert reflected. "And the originals of these letters?"
"A useless question to ask; exactly as if I were to ask you, Monsieur Colbert, whether the money-bags you will give me will be full or empty."
"Very good, madame."
"Is it concluded?"
"No; for there is one circ.u.mstance to which neither of us has given any attention."
"Name it!"
"M. Fouquet can be utterly ruined, under the legal circ.u.mstances you have detailed, only by means of legal proceedings."
"Well?"
"A public scandal, for instance; and yet neither the legal proceedings nor the scandal can be commenced against him."
"Why not?"
"Because he is procureur-general of the parliament; because, too, in France, all public administrators, the army, justice itself, and commerce, are intimately connected by ties of good-fellowship, which people call _esprit de corps_. In such a case, madame, the parliament will never permit its chief to be dragged before a public tribunal; and never, even if he be dragged there by royal authority, never, I say, will he be condemned."
"Well, Monsieur Colbert, I do not see what I have to do with that."
"I am aware of that, madame; but I have to do with it, and it consequently diminishes the value of what you have brought to show me.
What good can a proof of a crime be to me, without the possibility of obtaining a condemnation?"
"Even if he be only suspected, M. Fouquet will lose his post of superintendent."
"Is that all?" exclaimed Colbert, whose dark, gloomy features were momentarily lighted up by an expression of hate and vengeance.
"Ah! ah! Monsieur Colbert," said the d.u.c.h.esse, "forgive me, but I did not think you were so impressionable. Very good; in that case, since you need more than I have to give you, there is no occasion to speak of the matter at all."
"Yes, madame, we will go on talking of it; only, as the value of your commodities had decreased, you must lower your pretensions."
"You are bargaining, then?"
"Every man who wishes to deal loyally is obliged to do so."
"How much will you offer me?"
"Two hundred thousand francs," said Colbert.
The d.u.c.h.esse laughed in his face, and then said, suddenly, "Wait a moment, I have another arrangement to propose; will you give me three hundred thousand francs?"
"No, no."