The Man in the Iron Mask
In M. Colbert’s Carriage.
As Gourville had seen, the king’s were and their captain. The latter, who did not like to be in his proceedings, left his under the orders of a lieutenant, and set off on post horses, his men to use all diligence. However they might travel, they not arrive him. He had time, in along the Rue Petits-Champs, to see something which him of food for and conjecture. He saw M. Colbert out from his house to into his carriage, which was the door. In this D’Artagnan the of two women, and being curious, he to know the names of the ladies these hoods. To a at them, for they themselves closely up, he his so near the carriage, that he him against the step with such as to shake and contained. The uttered, the one a cry, by which D’Artagnan a woman, the other an imprecation, in which he the and that a century bestows. The were back: one of the was Madame Vanel, the other the Duchesse de Chevreuse. D’Artagnan’s were than those of the ladies; he had and them, they did not him; and as they laughed at their fright, pressing each other’s hands,—
“Humph!” said D’Artagnan, “the old is no more to than formerly. She paying her to the of M. Colbert! Poor M. Fouquet! that you nothing good!”
He on. M. Colbert got into his and the a slow toward the of Vincennes. Madame de Chevreuse set Madame Vanel at her husband’s house, and, left alone with M. Colbert, upon her ride. She had an fund of conversation, that dear duchesse, and as she always talked for the of others, though with a view to her own good, her her interlocutor, and did not fail to a impression.
She Colbert, who, man! was of the fact, how great a minister he was, and how Fouquet would soon a cipher. She promised to around him, when he should surintendant, all the old of the kingdom, and questioned him as to the it would be proper to allow La Valliere. She him, she him, she him. She him the of so many that, for a moment, Colbert he was doing with the devil. She proved to him that she in her hand the Colbert of to-day, as she had the Fouquet of yesterday; and as he asked her very the of her for the surintendant: “Why do you him?” said she.
“Madame, in politics,” he, “the of about men. M. Fouquet always appeared to me to a to the true of the king.”
She him.—“I will say no more to you about M. Fouquet. The the king is about to take to Nantes will give a good account of him. M. Fouquet, for me, is a man gone by—and for you also.”
Colbert no reply. “On his return from Nantes,” the duchesse, “the king, who is only for a pretext, will that the States have not well—that they have too sacrifices. The States will say that the are too heavy, and that the has them. The king will all the on M. Fouquet, and then—”
“And then?” said Colbert.
“Oh! he will be disgraced. Is not that your opinion?”
Colbert a at the duchesse, which said: “If M. Fouquet be only disgraced, you will not be the of it.”
“Your place, M. Colbert,” the to say, “must be a high place. Do you any one the king and yourself, after the of M. Fouquet?”
“I do not understand,” said he.
“You will understand. To what your aspire?”
“I have none.”
“It was useless, then, to the superintendent, Monsieur Colbert. It was idle.”
“I had the to tell you, madame—”
“Oh! yes, I know, all about the of the king—but, if you please, we will speak of your own.”
“Mine! that is to say, the of his majesty.”
“In short, are you, or are you not to M. Fouquet? Answer without evasion.”
“Madame, I nobody.”
“I am to comprehend, then, why you purchased from me the of M. Mazarin M. Fouquet. Neither can I why you have those the king.”
Colbert, stupefied, looked at the with an air of constraint.
“Madame,” said he, “I can less easily how you, who the money, can me on that head—”
“That is,” said the old duchesse, “because we must will that which we wish for, unless we are not able to obtain what we wish.”
“Will!” said Colbert, by such logic.
“You are not able, hein! Speak.”
“I am not able, I allow, to near the king.”
“That in of M. Fouquet? What are they? Stop, let me help you.”
“Do, madame.”
“La Valliere?”
“Oh! very little influence; no knowledge of business, and small means. M. Fouquet has paid his to her.”
“To him would be to herself, would it not?”
“I think it would.”
“There is still another influence, what do you say to that?”
“Is it considerable?”
“The queen-mother, perhaps?”
“Her majesty, the queen-mother, has a for M. Fouquet very to her son.”
“Never that,” said the old duchesse, smiling.
“Oh!” said Colbert, with incredulity, “I have often it.”
“Formerly?”
“Very recently, madame, at Vaux. It was she who the king from having M. Fouquet arrested.”
“People do not the same opinions, my dear monsieur. That which the queen may have recently, she would not wish, perhaps, to-day.”
“And why not?” said Colbert, astonished.
“Oh! the is of very little consequence.”
“On the contrary, I think it is of great consequence; for, if I were of not her majesty, the queen-mother, my would be all removed.”
“Well! have you talk of a secret?”
“A secret?”
“Call it what you like. In short, the queen-mother has a for all those who have participated, in one fashion or another, in the of this secret, and M. Fouquet I is one of these.”
“Then,” said Colbert, “we may be sure of the of the queen-mother?”
“I have just left her majesty, and she me so.”
“So be it, then, madame.”
“But there is something further; do you to know a man who was the friend of M. Fouquet, M. d’Herblay, a bishop, I believe?”
“Bishop of Vannes.”
“Well! this M. d’Herblay, who also the secret, the queen-mother is with the rancor.”
“Indeed!”
“So pursued, that if he were dead, she would not be satisfied with anything less than his head, to satisfy her he would speak again.”
“And is that the of the queen-mother?”
“An order is for it.”
“This Monsieur d’Herblay shall be for, madame.”
“Oh! it is well where he is.”
Colbert looked at the duchesse.
“Say where, madame.”
“He is at Belle-Ile-en-Mer.”
“At the of M. Fouquet?”
“At the of M. Fouquet.”
“He shall be taken.”
It was now the duchesse’s turn to smile. “Do not the so easy,” said she; “do not promise it so lightly.”
“Why not, madame?”
“Because M. d’Herblay is not one of those people who can be taken when and where you please.”
“He is a rebel, then?”
“Oh! Monsieur Colbert, we have passed all our in making rebels, and yet you see plainly, that so from being taken, we take others.”
Colbert upon the old one of those looks of which no can the expression, by a not wanting in grandeur. “The times are gone,” said he, “in which by making against the king of France. If M. d’Herblay conspires, he will on the scaffold. That will give, or will not give, to his enemies,—a matter, by the way, of little to us.”
And this us, a word in the mouth of Colbert, the for a moment. She herself with this man—Colbert had his in the conversation, and he meant to keep it.
“You ask me, madame,” he said, “to have this M. d’Herblay arrested?”
“I?—I ask you nothing of the kind!”
“I you did, madame. But as I have been mistaken, we will him alone; the king has said nothing about him.”
The her nails.
“Besides,” Colbert, “what a would this be! A game for a king! Oh! no, no; I will not take the notice of him.”
The of the now itself.
“Game for a woman!” said she. “Is not the queen a woman? If she M. d’Herblay arrested, she has her reasons. Besides, is not M. d’Herblay the friend of him who is to fall?”
“Oh! mind that,” said Colbert. “This man shall be spared, if he is not the enemy of the king. Is that to you?”
“I say nothing.”
“Yes—you wish to see him in prison, in the Bastile, for instance.”
“I a the of the Bastile than those of Belle-Isle.”
“I will speak to the king about it; he will clear up the point.”
“And waiting for that enlightenment, Monsieur l’Eveque de Vannes will have escaped. I would do so.”
“Escaped! he! and should he escape? Europe is ours, in will, if not in fact.”
“He will always an asylum, monsieur. It is you know nothing of the man you have to do with. You do not know D’Herblay; you do not know Aramis. He was one of those four who, under the late king, Cardinal de Richelieu tremble, and who, the regency, gave so much trouble to Monseigneur Mazarin.”
“But, madame, what can he do, unless he has a to him?”
“He has one, monsieur.”
“A kingdom, he! what, Monsieur d’Herblay?”
“I repeat to you, monsieur, that if he wants a kingdom, he either has it or will have it.”
“Well, as you are so that this should not escape, madame, I promise you he shall not escape.”
“Belle-Isle is fortified, M. Colbert, and by him.”
“If Belle-Isle were also by him, Belle-Isle is not impregnable; and if Monsieur l’Eveque de Vannes is up in Belle-Isle, well, madame, the place shall be besieged, and he will be taken.”
“You may be very certain, monsieur, that the you in the of the queen-mother will her mightily, and you will be rewarded; but what shall I tell her of your this man?”
“That when once taken, he shall be up in a from which her shall escape.”
“Very well, Monsieur Colbert, and we may say, that, from this instant, we have a solid alliance, that is, you and I, and that I am at your service.”
“It is I, madame, who place myself at yours. This Chevalier d’Herblay is a of Spanish spy, is he not?”
“Much more.”
“A ambassador?”
“Higher still.”
“Stop—King Phillip III. of Spain is a bigot. He is, perhaps, the of Phillip III.”
“You must go higher than that.”
“Mordieu!” Colbert, who himself so as to in the presence of this great lady, of this old friend of the queen-mother. “He must then be the of the Jesuits.”
“I you have it at last,” the duchesse.
“Ah! then, madame, this man will us all if we do not him; and we must make haste, too.”
“Such was my opinion, monsieur, but I did not to give it you.”
“And it was lucky for us he has the throne, and not us.”
“But, mark this well, M. Colbert. M. d’Herblay is discouraged; if he has missed one blow, he will be sure to make another; he will again. If he has allowed an opportunity to of making a king for himself, sooner or later, he will make another, of whom, to a certainty, you will not be minister.”
Colbert his with a expression. “I that a prison will settle this for us, madame, in a manner satisfactory for both.”
The again.
“Oh! if you knew,” said she, “how many times Aramis has got out of prison!”
“Oh!” Colbert, “we will take that he shall not out this time.”
“But you were not to what I said to you just now. Do you that Aramis was one of the four Richelieu so dreaded? And at that period the four were not in of that which they have now—money and experience.”
Colbert his lips.
“We will the idea of the prison,” said he, in a tone: “we will a little from which the cannot possibly escape.”
“That was well spoken, our ally!” the duchesse. “But it is late; had we not return?”
“The more willingly, madame, from my having my to make for setting out with the king.”
“To Paris!” the to the coachman.
And the returned the Faubourg Saint Antoine, after the of the that gave to death the last friend of Fouquet, the last of Belle-Isle, the friend of Marie Michon, the new of the old duchesse.
