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The Vicomte De Bragelonne
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The Vicomte De Bragelonne 719 at Prostate Health
and then--"
"And then?" said Colbert.
"Oh! he will be disgraced. Is not that your opinion?"
Colbert darted a glance at the duchesse, which plainly said: "If M.
Fouquet be only disgraced, you will not be the cause of it."
"Your place, M. Colbert," the duchesse hastened to say, "must be quite a
marked place. Do you perceive any one between the king and yourself,
after the fall of M. Fouquet?"
"I do not understand," said he.
"You will understand. To what does your ambition aspire?"
"I have none."
"It was useless then to overthrow the surintendant, Monsieur Colbert.
That is idle."
"I had the honor to tell you, Madame--"
"Oh! yes, I know, all about the interest of the king--but, if you
please, we will speak of your own."
"Mine! that is to say the affairs of his majesty."
"In short, are you, or are you not ruining M. Fouquet? Answer without
evasion."
"Madame, I ruin nobody."
"I cannot then comprehend why you should purchase of me the letters of
M. Mazarin concerning M. Fouquet. Neither can I conceive why you have
laid those letters before the king."
Colbert, half stupefied, looked at the duchesse with an air of
constraint.
"Madame," said he, "I can less easily conceive how you, who received the
money, can reproach 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, quite confounded by such coarse logic.
"You are not able, hein! Speak."
"I am not able, I allow, to destroy certain influences near the king."
"Which combat for 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 court to her."
"To defend him would be to accuse 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 for M. Fouquet a weakness very
prejudicial to her son."
"Never believe that," said the old duchess, smiling.
"Oh!" said Colbert, with incredulity, "I have often experienced it."
"Formerly?"
"Very recently, madame, at Vaux. It was she who prevented the king from
having M. Fouquet arrested."
"People do not always entertain the same opinions, my dear monsieur.
That which the queen may have wished recently, she would not, perhaps,
to-day."
"And why not?" said Colbert, astonished.
"Oh! the reason is of very little consequence."
"On the contrary, I think it is of great consequence; for, if I were
certain of not displeasing her majesty the queen-mother, all my scruples
would be removed."
"Well! have you never heard talk of a certain secret?"
"A secret?"
"Call it what you like. In short, the queen-mother has conceived a
horror for all those who have participated, in one fashion or another,
in the discovery of this secret, and M. Fouquet, I believe to be one of
these."
"Then," said Colbert, "we may be sure of the assent of the
queen-mother?"
"I have just left her majesty, and she assures me so."
"So be it then, madame."
"But there is something further: do you happen to know a man who was the
intimate friend of M. Fouquet, a M. dHerblay, a bishop, I believe?"
"Bishop of Vannes."
"Well! this M. dHerblay, who also knew the secret, the queen-mother is
having him pursued with the utmost rancor."
"Indeed!"
"So hotly pursued, that if he were dead she would not be satisfied with
anything less than his head, to satisfy her he would never speak
again."
"And is that the desire of the queen-mother?"
"An order is given for it."
"This Monsieur dHerblay shall be sought for, madame."
"Oh! it is well known where he is."
Colbert looked at the duchesse.
"Say where, madame."
"He is at Belle-Isle-en-Mer."
"At the residence of M. Fouquet?"
"At the residence of M. Fouquet."
"He shall be taken."
It was now the duchesses turn to smile. "Do not fancy that so easy,"
said she, "and do not promise it so lightly."
"Why not, madame?"
"Because M. dHerblay is not one of those people who can be taken just
when you please."
"He is a rebel, then!"
"Oh! Monsieur Colbert, we folks have passed all our lives in making
rebels, and yet you see plainly, that so far from being taken, we take
others."
Colbert fixed upon the old duchesse one of those fierce looks of which
no words can convey the expression, accompanied by a firmness which was
not wanting in grandeur. "The times are gone," said he, "in which
subjects gained duchies by making war against the king of France.
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