Part 47 (2/2)
”I will economize, sire Besides, your majesty as two valuable servants in M Colbert and al with your treasures-and this shall be reeable to your majesty; and the other will economize money for you, and this will be M Colbert's province”
”M Colbert?” returned the king, astonished
”Certainly, sire; M Colbert is an excellent accountant”
At this co felt himself penetrated with confidence and admiration There was not,which injuriously affected a single syllable of the reiu two reproaches The king coenerosity and address, he said, ”You praise M Colbert, then?”
”Yes, sire, I praise hi a man of merit, I believe him to be devoted to your majesty's interests”
”Is that because he has often interfered with your own views?” said the king, s
”Exactly, sire”
”Explain yourself”
”It is sih I am the man who is needed to make the money co”
”Nay, nay,which will correct this good opinion”
”Do you mean as far as administrative abilities are concerned, sire?”
”Yes”
”Not in the slightest”
”Really?”
”Upon hout France a better clerk than M Colbert”
This word ”clerk” did not possess, in 1661, the sonification attached to it in the present day; but, as spoken by Fouquet, who had addressed as the superintendent, it seenificant and petty character, that at this juncture served admirably to restore Fouquet to his place, and Colbert to his own
”And yet,” said Louis XIV, ”it was Colbert, however, that, notwithstanding his econoement of my fetes here at Fontainebleau; and I assure you, Monsieur Fouquet, that in noay has he checked the expenditure of money” Fouquet bowed, but did not reply
”Is it not your opinion too?” said the king
”I think, sire,” he replied, ”that M Colbert has done what he had to do in an exceedingly orderly manner, and that he deserves, in this respect, all the praise your majesty may bestow upon him”
The word ”orderly” was a proper acco possessed that extreanization, that delicacy of perception, which pierced through and detected the regular order of feelings and sensations, before the actual sensations themselves, and he therefore comprehended that the clerk had, in Fouquet's opinion, been too full of enificent fetes of Fontainebleauconsequently felt that there was so in the amuseht be able to find fault; he experienced a little of the annoyance felt by a person co from the provinces to Paris, dressed out in the very best clothes which his wardrobe can furnish, only to find that the fashi+onably dressed h This part of the conversation, which Fouquet had carried on with sowith the highest esteem for the character of the man and the capacity of the minister Fouquet took his leave at a quarter to three in thewent to bed a little uneasy and confused at the indirect lesson he had received; and a good hour was eain in memory the embroideries, the tapestries, the bills of fare of the various banquets, the architecture of the triue of the ”Clerk Colbert's” invention The result was, the king passed in review before hiht days, and decided that faults could be found in his fetes But Fouquet, by his politeness, his thoughtful consideration, and his generosity, had injured Colbert more deeply than the latter, by his artifice, his ill-will, and his persevering hatred, had ever yet succeeded in hurting Fouquet
Chapter XLVIII Fontainebleau at Two o'Clock in the Morning
As we have seen, Saint-Aignan had quitted the king's apartment at the very ed with ato do his ute He e have introduced as the king's friend was indeed an uncoe; he was one of those valuable courtiers whose vigilance and acuteness of perception threw all other favorites into the shade, and counterbalanced, by his close attention, the servility of Dangeau, as not the favorite, but the toady of the king M de Saint-Aignan began to think as to be done in the present position of affairs He reflected that his first inforht to come from De Guiche He therefore set out in search of his, and who seemed to have returned to his own apartnan therefore went in quest of hi turned, and twisted, and searched in every direction, he perceived soure was asat a , although its curtains were closely drawn As thishappened to be Madanan concluded that the form in question must be that of De Guiche He advanced cautiously, and found he was not mistaken De Guiche had, after his conversation with Madaht of happiness, that all of his strength of mind was hardly sufficient to enable hinan knew that De Guiche had had so to do with La Valliere's introduction to Madaets nothing; but he had never learned under what title or conditions De Guiche had conferred his protection upon La Valliere But, as in asking a great ular if a nan reckoned upon learning ht be, if he questioned De Guiche with that extreme tact, and, at the sa an object, of which he was capable Saint-Aignan's plan was as follows: If the infor, with alacrity, that he had lighted upon a pearl, and clai the pearl in question in the royal crown If the inforht be possible,-he would exa cared about La Valliere, and et rid of the girl altogether, and thereby obtain all the merit of her banishht have the least pretensions to the king's heart, beginning with Mada should show himself obstinate in his fancy, then he would not produce the da information he had obtained, but would let La Valliere know that this da information was carefully preserved in a secret drawer of her confidant's enerosity before the poor girl's eyes, and so keep her in constant suspense between gratitude and apprehension, to such an extent as to make her a friend at court, interested, as an acco her own As far as concerned the day when the bombshell of the past should burst, if ever there were any occasion, Saint-Aignan promised himself that he would by that time have taken all possible precautions, and would pretend an entire ignorance of the ard to La Valliere, he would still have an opportunity of being considered the personification of generosity It ith such ideas as these, which the fire of covetousness had caused to dawn in half an hour, that Saint-Aignan, the son of earth, as La Fontaine would have said, deteret De Guiche into conversation: in other words, to trouble hinan was quite ignorant It was long past one o'clock in the , ainst the trunk of a tree, with his eyes fastened upon the lighted ,-the sleepiest hour of night-ti poppies, the hour when eyes are heavy, hearts throb, and heads feel dull and languid-an hour which casts upon the day which has passed away a look of regret, while addressing a loving greeting to the dawning light For De Guiche it was the dawn of unutterable happiness; he would have bestowed a treasure upon a beggar, had one stood before hience in his dreanan, badly advised,-selfishness always counsels badly,-came and struck hi a word, or rather a na for you”
”For
”Yes; and I find you seely moon-struck Is it likely, my dear comte, you have been attacked by a poeticalsensations were nan in the deep recesses of his heart ”Perhaps,” he said ”But by what happy chance-”
”Ah! your remark shows that you did not hear what I said”
”How so?”
”Why, I began by telling you I was looking for you”
”You were looking for me?”
”Yes: and I find you now in the very act”
”Of doing what, I should like to know?”
”Of singing the praises of Phyllis”
”Well, I do not deny it,” said De Guiche, laughing ”Yes,Phyllis's praises”
”And you have acquired the right to do so”
”I?”
”You; no doubt of it You; the intrepid protector of every beautiful and clever woot hold of now?”
”Acknowledged truths, I am well aware But stay a moment; I am in love”
”You?”
”Yes”
”So much the better, my dear comte; tell ht perhaps presently observe the here the light was still burning, took the comte's arm and endeavored to lead hi, ”do not take me towards those dark woods, it is too daht” And while he yielded to the pressure of De Guiche's ar the chateau
”Well,” said De Guiche, resigning himself, ”lead me where you like, and ask reeable than you are” And then, after a nan continued, ”I wish you to tellabout a certain person in who you have interested yourself”
”And hom you are in love?”