Guenegaud lost half his fortune; the
Bishop of Avranches had to pay twelve thousand francs; Gourville fled to
England; Pomponne was ordered to reside at Verdun. Fouquet's papers were
examined in the presence of the King. Letters were there from persons in
every class of life,--a very large number from women, for the prisoner
had charms which the fair sex have always found it difficult to resist.
Madame Scarron had written to thank him for his bounty to the poor
cripple whose name and roof protected her. The King had probably never
before heard of this lady, who was to be the wife and ruler of his old
age. The portfolio contained specimens of the gayest and brightest of
letter-writers. In the course of his career, the gallant Surintendant
had attempted to add the charming widow Sevigne to his conquests. She
refused the temptation, but always remained grateful for the compliment.
Le Tellier told her cousin, Bussy-Rabutin, that the King liked her
letters,--"very different," he said, "from the _douceurs fades_"--the
insipid sweet things--"of the other feminine scribes." Nevertheless, she
thought it prudent to reside for a time upon her estate in Brittany. A
copy of a letter by St. Evremond was found, written three years before
from the Spanish frontier. It was a sarcastic pleasantry at the expense
of Mazarin and the _Paix des Pyrenees_, St. Evremond was a soldier, a
wit, and the leader of fashion; Colbert hated him, and magnified a _jeu
d'esprit_ into a State-crime. He was exiled, and spent the rest of his
long life in England. Of the baser sort, hundreds were turned out of
their places and thrown penniless upon the world. It was a _coup
d'etat_, a revolution, and most people were against Fouquet. It is such
a consolation for the little to see the mighty fall!

The instinct which impels friends and servants to fly from sinking
fortunes is a well-established fact in human natural history; but
Fouquet's hold upon his followers was extraordinary: it resisted the
shock of ruin. They risked court-favor, purse, and person, to help him.
Gourville, before he thought of his own safety, carried a hundred
thousand livres to Madame Fouquet, to be used in defending the
Surintendant, or in bribing a judge or a jailer. The rest of his
property he divided, intrusting one half to a devout friend, the other
to a sinful beauty, Ninon de l'Enclos, and fled the country. The
"professor" absorbed all that was left in his hands; Ninon returned her