"You are a financier, monsieur, I believe?"
"Yes, sire."
"And did monsieur le cardinal employ you in his stewardship?"
"I had that honor, sire."
"You never did anything personally for my household, I believe?"
"Pardon me, sire, it was I who had the honor of giving monsieur le cardinal the idea of an economy which puts three hundred thousand francs a year into your majesty"s coffers."
"What economy was that, monsieur?" asked Louis XIV.
"Your majesty knows that the hundred Swiss have silver lace on each side of their ribbons?"
"Doubtless."
"Well, sire, it was I who proposed that imitation silver lace should be placed upon these ribbons; it could not be detected, and a hundred thousand crowns serve to feed a regiment during six months; and is the price of ten thousand good muskets or the value of a vessel of ten guns, ready for sea."
"That is true," said Louis XIV., considering more attentively, "and, ma foi! that was a well placed economy; besides, it was ridiculous for soldiers to wear the same lace as n.o.blemen."
"I am happy to be approved of by your majesty."
"Is that the only appointment you held about the cardinal?" asked the king.
"It was I who was appointed to examine the accounts of the superintendent, sire."
"Ah!" said Louis, who was about to dismiss Colbert, but whom that word stopped; "ah! it was you whom his eminence had charged to control M.
Fouquet, was it? And the result of that examination?"
"Is that there is a deficit, sire; but if your majesty will permit me--"
"Speak, M. Colbert."
"I ought to give your majesty some explanations."
"Not at all, monsieur, it is you who have controlled these accounts; give me the result."
"That is very easily done, sire: emptiness everywhere, money nowhere."
"Beware, monsieur; you are roughly attacking the administration of M.
Fouquet, who, nevertheless, I have heard say, is an able man."
Colbert colored, and then became pale, for he felt that from that minute he entered upon a struggle with a man whose power almost equaled the sway of him who had just died. "Yes, sire, a very able man," repeated Colbert, bowing.
"But if M. Fouquet is an able man, and, in spite of that ability, if money be wanting, whose fault is it?"
"I do not accuse, sire, I verify."
"That is well; make out your accounts, and present them to me. There is a deficit, you say? A deficit may be temporary; credit returns and funds are restored."
"No, sire."
"Upon this year, perhaps, I understand that; but upon next year?"
"Next year is eaten as bare as the current year."
"But the year after, then?"
"Will be just like next year."
"What do you tell me, Monsieur Colbert?"
"I say there are four years engaged beforehand."
"They must have a loan, then."
"They must have three, sire."
"I will create offices to make them resign, and the salary of the posts shall be paid into the treasury."
"Impossible, sire, for there have already been creations upon creations of offices, the provisions of which are given in blank, so that the purchasers enjoy them without filling them. That is why your majesty cannot make them resign. Further, upon each agreement M. Fouquet has made an abatement of a third, so that the people have been plundered, without your majesty profiting by it."
The king started. "Explain me that, M. Colbert," he said.
"Let your majesty set down clearly your thought, and tell me what you wish me to explain."
"You are right, clearness is what you wish, is it not?"
"Yes, sire, clearness. G.o.d is G.o.d above all things, because He made light."
"Well, for example," resumed Louis XIV., "if to-day, the cardinal being dead, and I being king, suppose I wanted money?"
"Your majesty would not have any."
"Oh! that is strange, monsieur! How! my superintendent would not find me any money?"
Colbert shook his large head.
"How is that?" said the king; "is the income of the state so much in debt that there is no longer any revenue?"
"Yes, sire."
The king frowned and said, "If it be so, I will get together the ordonnances to obtain a discharge from the holders, a liquidation at a cheap rate."
"Impossible, for the ordonnances have been converted into bills, which bills, for the convenience of return and facility of transaction, are divided into so many parts that the originals can no longer be recognized."
Louis, very much agitated, walked about, still frowning. "But, if this is as you say, Monsieur Colbert," said he, stopping all at once, "I shall be ruined before I begin to reign."