"If it is to that bad news I owe your presence, marquise, welcome be even that bad news! or rather, marquise, since you allow that I am not quite indifferent to you, let me hear nothing of the bad news, but speak of yourself."
"No, no, on the contrary, demand it of me; require me to tell it to you instantly, and not to allow myself to be turned aside by any feeling whatever. Fouquet, my friend! it is of immense importance."
"You astonish me, marquise; I will even say you almost frighten me. You, so serious, so collected; you who know the world we live in so well. Is it, then, important?"
"Oh! very important."
"In the first place, how did you come here?"
"You shall know that presently; but first to something of more consequence."
"Speak, marquise, speak! I implore you, have pity on my impatience."
"Do you know that Colbert is made intendant of the finances?"
"Bah! Colbert, little Colbert."
"Yes, Colbert, _little_ Colbert."
"Mazarin's factotum?"
"The same."
"Well! what do you see so terrific in that, dear marquise? little Colbert is intendant; that is astonishing I confess, but is not terrible."
"Do you think the king has given, without pressing motive, such a place to one you call a little _cuistre?_""In the first place, is it positively true that the king has given it to him?"
"It is so said."
"Ay, but who says so?"
"Everybody."
"Everybody, that's nobody; mention some one likely to be well informed who says so."
"Madame Vanel."
"Ah! now you begin to frighten me in earnest," said Fouquet, laughing;
"if any one is well informed, or ought to be well informed, it is the person you name."
"Do not speak ill of poor Marguerite, Monsieur Fouquet, for she still loves you."
"Bah! indeed? That is scarcely credible. I thought little Colbert, as you said just now, had passed over that love, and left the impression upon it of a spot of ink or a stain of grease."
"Fouquet! Fouquet! Is this the way you always treat the poor creatures you desert?"
"Why, you surely are not going to undertake the defense of Madame Vanel?"
"Yes, I will undertake it; for, I repeat, she loves you still, and the proof is she saves you."
"But your interposition, marquise; that is very cunning on her part. No angel could be more agreeable to me, or could lead me more certainly to salvation. But, let me ask you, do you know Marguerite?"
"She was my convent friend."
"And you say that she has informed you that Monsieur Colbert was named intendant?"
"Yes, she did."
"Well, enlighten me, marquise; granted Monsieur Colbert is intendant - so be it. In what can an intendant, that is to say my subordinate, my clerk, give me umbrage or injure me, even if he is Monsieur Colbert?"
"You do not reflect, monsieur, apparently," replied the marquise.
"Upon what?"
"This: that Monsieur Colbert hates you."
"Hates me?" cried Fouquet. "Good heavens! marquise, whence do you come? where can you live? Hates me! why all the world hates me, he, of course, as others do."
"He more than others."
"More than others - let him."
"He is ambitious."
"Who is not, marquise."
"Yes, but with him ambition has no bounds."
"I am quite aware of that, since he made it a point to succeed me with Madame Vanel."
"And obtained his end; look at that."
"Do you mean to say he has the presumption to pass from intendant to superintendent?"
"Have you not yourself already had the same fear?"
"Oh! oh!" said Fouquet, "to succeed with Madame Vanel is one thing, to succeed me with the king is another. France is not to be purchased so easily as the wife of a _maitre des comptes_."
"Eh! monsieur, everything is to be bought; if not by gold, by intrigue."
"Nobody knows to the contrary better than you, madame, you to whom I have offered millions."
"Instead of millions, Fouquet, you should have offered me a true, only and boundless love: I might have accepted that. So you see, still, everything is to be bought, if not in one way, by another."
"So, Colbert, in your opinion, is in a fair way of bargaining for my place of superintendent. Make yourself easy on that head, my dear marquise; he is not yet rich enough to purchase it."
"But if he should rob you of it?"
"Ah! that is another thing. Unfortunately, before he can reach me, that is to say, the body of the place, he must destroy, must make a breach in the advanced works, and I am devilishly well fortified, marquise."
"What you call your advanced works are your creatures, are they not – your friends?"
"Exactly so."
"And is M. d'Eymeris one of your creatures?"
"Yes, he is."
"Is M. Lyodot one of your friends?"
"Certainly."
"M. de Vanin?"
"M. de Vanin! ah! they may do what they like with him, but - "
"But - "
"But they must not touch the others!"
"Well, if you are anxious they should not touch MM. d'Eymeris and Lyodot, it is time to look about you."
"Who threatens them?"