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The Vicomte De Bragelonne
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The Vicomte De Bragelonne 449 at Prostate Health
is called a false
position. To keep such a secret as that is to keep a burning coal in
ones breeches pocket, and trust that it may not burn the stuff. And
yet, not to keep it when I have sworn to do so, is dishonorable. It
generally happens that some bright idea or other occurs to me as I am
going along; but I am very much mistaken if I shall not now have to go a
long way in order to find the solution of this affair. Yes, but which
way to go? Oh! toward Paris, of course; that is the best way, after all.
Only one must make haste, and in order to make haste, four legs are
better than two, and I, unhappily, have only two. A horse, a horse, as
I heard them say at the theater in London, my kingdom for a horse! And
now I think of it, it need not cost me so much as that, for at the
Barriere de la Conference there is a guard of musketeers, and instead of
the one horse I need, I shall find ten there."
So, in pursuance of this resolution, which he had adopted with his usual
rapidity, DArtagnan immediately turned his back upon the heights of
Chaillot, reached the guard-house, took the fastest horse he could find
there, and was at the palace in less than ten minutes. It was striking
five as he reached the Palais Royal. The king, he was told, went to bed
at his usual hour, after having been engaged with M. Colbert, and, in
all probability, was still fast asleep. "Come," said DArtagnan, "she
spoke the truth, and the king is ignorant of everything; if he only knew
one half of what has happened, the Palais Royal by this time would be
turned upside down."
CHAPTER XXXIV.
SHOWING HOW LOUIS, ON HIS SIDE, HAD PASSED THE TIME FROM TEN TO
HALF-PAST TWELVE AT NIGHT.
When the king left the apartment of the maids of honor, he found Colbert
awaiting him to receive his directions with regard to the next days
ceremony, as the king was then to receive the Dutch and Spanish
ambassadors. Louis XIV. had serious causes of dissatisfaction with the
Dutch; the States had already been guilty of many mean shifts, and
evasions with France, and without perceiving or without caring about the
chances of a rupture, they again abandoned the alliance with his Most
Christian Majesty, for the purpose of entering into all kinds of plots
with Spain. Louis XIV. at his accession, that is to say, at the death of
Cardinal Mazarin, had found this political question roughly sketched
out; the solution was difficult for a young man, but as, at that time,
the king represented the whole nation, anything that the head resolved
upon, the body would be found ready to carry out. Any sudden impulse of
anger, the reaction of young and hot blood to the brain, would be quite
sufficient to change an old form of policy and to create another and new
system altogether. The part that diplomatists had to play in those days
was that of arranging among themselves the different _coups-détat_
which their sovereign masters might wish to effect.
Louis was not in that calm state of mind which could make him capable of
determining upon a wise course of policy. Still much agitated from the
quarrel he had just had with La Valliere, he walked hastily into his
cabinet, exceedingly desirous of finding an opportunity of producing an
explosion after he had controlled himself for so long a time. Colbert,
as he saw the king enter, knew the position of affairs at a glance,
understood the kings intentions, and resolved therefore to maneuver a
little. When Louis requested to be informed what it would be necessary
to say on the morrow, Colbert began by expressing his surprise that his
majesty had not been properly informed, by M. Fouquet. "M. Fouquet," he
said, "is perfectly acquainted with the whole of this Dutch affair, he
receives the dispatches himself direct."
The king, who was accustomed to hear M. Colbert speak in not
overscrupulous terms of M. Fouquet, allowed this remark to pass by
unanswered, and merely listened. Colbert noticed the effect it had
produced, and hastened to back out, saying that M. Fouquet was not on
all occasions as blamable as at the first glance might seem to be the
case, inasmuch as at that moment he was greatly occupied. The king
looked up. "What do you allude to?" he said.
"Sire, men
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