"Very good; but take a particular instance, for the d.u.c.h.esse a.s.serts that M. de Mazarin alludes to certain particular instances."
"What are they?"
"Something like a sum of thirteen millions of francs, of which it would be very difficult for you to define the precise nature of the employment."
"Thirteen millions!" said the superintendent, stretching himself in his armchair, in order to enable him the more comfortably to look up towards the ceiling. "Thirteen millions--I am trying to remember out of all those I have been accused of having stolen."
"Do not laugh, my dear monsieur, for it is very serious. It is positive that the d.u.c.h.esse has certain letters in her possession, and that these letters must be as she represents them, since she wished to sell them to me for five hundred thousand francs."
"Oh! one can have a very tolerable calumny got up for such a sum as that," replied Fouquet. "Ah! now I know what you mean," and he began to laugh very heartily.
"So much the better," said Aramis, a little rea.s.sured.
"I remember the story of those thirteen millions now. Yes, yes, I remember them quite well."
"I am delighted to hear it; tell me about them."
"Well, then, one day Signor Mazarin, Heaven rest his soul! made a profit of thirteen millions upon a concession of lands in the Valtelline; he canceled them in the registry of receipts, sent them to me, and then made me advance them to him for war expenses."
"Very good; then there is no doubt of their proper destination."
"No; the cardinal made me invest them in my own name, and gave me a receipt."
"You have the receipt?"
"Of course," said Fouquet, as he quietly rose from his chair, and went to his large ebony bureau inlaid with mother-of-pearl and gold.
"What I most admire in you," said Aramis, with an air of great satisfaction, "is, your memory in the first place, then your self-possession, and, finally, the perfect order which prevails in your administration; you, of all men, too, who are by nature a poet."
"Yes," said Fouquet, "I am orderly out of a spirit of idleness, to save myself the trouble of looking after things, and so I know that Mazarin"s receipt is in the third drawer under the letter M; I open the drawer, and place my hand upon the very paper I need. In the night, without a light, I could find it."
And with a confident hand he felt the bundle of papers which were piled up in the open drawer. "Nay, more than that," he continued, "I remember the paper as if I saw it; it is thick, somewhat crumpled, with gilt edges; Mazarin had made a blot upon the figure of the date. Ah!" he said, "the paper knows we are talking about it, and that we want it very much, and so it hides itself out of the way."
And as the superintendent looked into the drawer, Aramis rose from his seat.
"This is very singular," said Fouquet.
"Your memory is treacherous, my dear monseigneur; look in another drawer."
Fouquet took out the bundle of papers, and turned them over once more; he then grew very pale.
"Don"t confine your search to that drawer," said Aramis; "look elsewhere."
"Quite useless; I have never made a mistake; no one but myself arranges any papers of mine of this nature; no one but myself ever opens this drawer, of which, besides, no one, myself excepted, is aware of the secret."
"What do you conclude, then?" said Aramis, agitated.
"That Mazarin"s receipt has been stolen from me; Madame de Chevreuse was right, chevalier; I have appropriated the public funds, I have robbed the state coffers of thirteen millions of money; I am a thief, Monsieur d"Herblay."
"Nay, nay, do not get irritated--do not get excited."
"And why not, chevalier? surely there is every reason for it. If legal proceedings are well arranged, and a judgment given in accordance with them, your friend the superintendent will soon follow Montfaucon, his colleague Enguerrand de Marigny, and his predecessor, Semblancay."
"Oh!" said Aramis, smiling, "not so fast as that."
"And why not? why not so fast? What do you suppose Madame de Chevreuse has done with those letters--for you refused them, I suppose?"
"Yes; at once. I suppose that she went and sold them to M. Colbert."
"Well?"
"I said I supposed so; I might have said I was sure of it, for I had her followed, and, when she left me, she returned to her own house, went out by a back door, and proceeded straight to the intendant"s house in the Rue Croix des Pet.i.ts-Champs."
"Legal proceedings will be inst.i.tuted, then, scandal and dishonor will follow; and all will fall upon me like a thunderbolt, blindly, pitilessly."
Aramis approached Fouquet, who sat trembling in his chair, close to the open drawers; he placed his hand on his shoulder, and in an affectionate tone of voice, said: "Do not forget that the position of M. Fouquet can in no way be compared to that of Semblancay or of Marigny."
"And why not, in Heaven"s name?"
"Because the proceedings against those ministers were determined, completed, and the sentence carried out, whilst in your case the same thing cannot take place."
"Another blow, why not? A peculator is, under any circ.u.mstances, a criminal."
"Criminals who know how to find a safe asylum are never in danger."
"What! make my escape? Fly?"
"No, I do not mean that; you forget that all such proceedings originate in the parliament, that they are inst.i.tuted by the procureur-general, and that you are the procureur-general. You see that, unless you wish to condemn yourself--"
"Oh!" cried Fouquet, suddenly, dashing his fist upon the table.
"Well! what? what is the matter?"
"I am procureur-general no longer."
Aramis, at this reply, became as livid as death; he pressed his hands together convulsively, and with a wild, haggard look, which almost annihilated Fouquet, he said, laying a stress on every distinct syllable, "You are procureur-general no longer, do you say?"
"No."
"Since when?"
"Since the last four or five hours."
"Take care," interrupted Aramis, coldly; "I do not think you are in the full possession of your senses, my friend; collect yourself."
"I tell you," returned Fouquet, "that a little while ago, some one came to me, brought by my friends, to offer me fourteen hundred thousand francs for the appointment, and that I sold it."
Aramis looked as though he had been struck by lightning; the intelligent and mocking expression of his countenance a.s.sumed an aspect of such profound gloom and terror, that it had more effect upon the superintendent than all the exclamations and speeches in the world. "You had need of money, then?" he said, at last.