Part 28 (1/2)
”The sighs you spoke of just now are more than indications”
”You overwhel her whole strength, like a wrestler preparing for a last struggle; ”you take only my evil dispositions and my weaknesses into calculation, and do not speak of s If, at this moment, I feel instinctively attracted towards the superintendent, if I even make an advance to him, which, I confess, is very probable, my motive for it is, that M Fouquet's fate deeply affects me, and because he is, in ”
”Ah!” said thenew, then, has occurred?”
”Do you not know it?”
”I a about hiuish that suspends thought and speech, and even life itself
”In the first place, then, the king's favor is entirely withdrawn from M Fouquet, and conferred on M Colbert”
”So it is stated”
”It is very clear, since the discovery of the plot of Belle-Isle”
”I was told that the discovery of the fortifications there had turned out to M Fouquet's honor”
Marguerite began to laugh in so cruel a htedly plunged a dagger in her bosoer any question of M Fouquet's honor; his safety is concerned Before three days are passed the ruin of the superintendent will be co, ”that is going a little fast”
”I said three days, because I wish to deceive myself with a hope; but probably the catastrophe will be complete within twenty-four hours”
”Why so?”
”For the simplest of all reasons,-that M Fouquet has no uerite, some are without money to-day, who to-ht be M Fouquet's case when he had tealthy and clever friends who a it from every possible or impossible source; but those friends are dead”
”Money does not die, Marguerite; it ht and found”
”You see things on the bright side, and so much the better for you It is really very unfortunate that you are not the Egeria of M Fouquet; you ht no him the source whence he could obtain theasked him for yesterday”
”Millions!” said the marquise, in terror
”Four-an even number”
”Infamous!” murmured Madaht
”M Fouquet, I should think, eously
”If he has those which the king requires to-day,” said Marguerite, ”he will not, perhaps, possess those which the king will de will exact ain, then?”
”No doubt; and that isthat the ruin of poor M Fouquet is inevitable Pride will induce him to furnish the money, and when he has no more, he will fall”
”It is true,” said the ; ”the plan is a bold one; but tell me, does M Colbert hate M Fouquet so very much?”
”I think he does not like him M Colbert is powerful; he i will, and discretion; he will rise”
”He will be superintendent?”
”It is probable Such is the reason, my dear marquise, why I felt myself impressed in favor of that poor man, who once loved, and even adored ive his infidelity, which I have reason to believe he also regrets; and why, moreover, I should not have been disinclined to afford hiood advice; he would have understood the step I had taken, and would have thought kindly ofto be loved, you know Men value love er blinded by its influence”
The marquise, bewildered and overcome by these cruel attacks, which had been calculated with the greatest nicety and precision, hardly knehat to answer in return; she even seeht Her perfidious friend's voice had assumed the most affectionate tone; she spoke as a woman, but concealed the instincts of a wolf
”Well,” said Madauerite would cease to overwhelo and see M Fouquet?”
”Decidedly,for me to make the first advance M Fouquet no doubt loves me, but he is too proud I cannot expose myself to an affront besides, I have ? Very well, I shall consult M Colbert on the subject” Marguerite rose sh to take leave, but the uerite advanced a few paces, in order that she rief in which her rival was plunged, and then said, suddenly,-”You do not accompany me to the door, then?” Theof the envelope, which had occupied her attention so greatly at the commencement of the conversation, and which was revealed at the first step she took She then opened the door of her oratory, and without even turning her head towards Marguerite Vanel, entered it, closing the door after her Marguerite said, or rather muttered a feords, which Madame de Belliere did not even hear As soon, however, as theable to resist the desire to satisfy herself that her suspicions ell founded, advanced stealthily like a panther, and seized the envelope ”Ah!” she said, gnashi+ng her teeth, ”it was indeed a letter fro when I arrived,” and then darted out of the roo arrived behind the rath was failing her; for a id, pale and motionless as a statue, and then, like a statue shaken on its base by an earthquake, tottered and fell inanimate on the carpet The noise of the fall resounded at the sa the hotel
Chapter XXVII Madame de Belliere's Plate
The blow had been theunexpected It was some time before the an to reflect upon the events so heartlessly announced to her She therefore returned, at the risk even of losing her life in the way, to that train of ideas which her relentless friend had forced her to pursue Treason, then-deep menaces, concealed under the semblance of public interest-such were Colbert'sdownfall, untiring efforts to attain this object, means of seduction no less wicked than the criuerite employed The crooked atoms of Descartes triumphed; to the man without compassion was united a woman without heart The nation, that the king was an accomplice in the plot which betrayed the duplicity of Louis XIII in his advanced age, and the avarice of Mazarin at a period of life when he had not had the opportunity of gorging hieous woence in compassionate lamentations The marquise was not one to hen action was necessary, nor to waste ti asit For soers, and then, raising her head, rang for her attendants with a steady hand, and with a gesture betraying a fixed determination of purpose Her resolution was taken
”Is everything prepared for my departure?” she inquired of one of her female attendants who entered
”Yes, madame; but it was not expected that your ladyshi+p would leave for Belliere for the next few days”
”All my jewels and articles of value, then, are packed up?”
”Yes,theenerally take your jeith you into the country”
”But they are all in order, you say?”
”Yes, in your ladyshi+p's own rooold plate?”
”In the chest”
”And the silver plate?”
”In the great oak closet”
The marquise remained silent for a few oldsmith be sent for”
Her attendants quitted the room to execute the order The marquise, however, had entered her own rooreatest attention Never, until now, had she bestowed such close attention upon riches in which women take so much pride; never, until now, had she looked at her jewels, except for the purpose of s or their colors On this occasion, however, she admired the size of the rubies and the brilliancy of the diarieved over every bleht, and the stones wretched The goldsmith, as he entered, found her thus occupied ”M Faucheux,” she said, ”I believe you supplied old service?”