d Aramis; "do not let us give more importance to
matters than is necessary; and besides ... Well, if we are menaced, we
have means of defense."

"Oh! menaced!" said Fouquet; "you do not place this gnat bite, as it
were, among the number of menaces which may compromise my fortunes and
my life, do you?"

"Do not forget, Monsieur Fouquet, that the bite of an insect can kill a
giant, if the insect be venomous."

"But has this sovereign power you were speaking of already vanished?"

"I am all-powerful, it is true, but I am not immortal."

"Come, then, the most pressing matter is to find Toby again, I suppose.
Is not that your opinion?"

"Oh! as for that, you will not find him again," said Aramis, "and if he
were of any great value to you, you must give him up for lost."

"At all events he is somewhere or another in the world," said Fouquet.

"You're right, let me act," replied Aramis.

CHAPTER VI.

MADAME'S FOUR CHANCES.

Anne of Austria had begged the young queen to pay her a visit. For some
time past suffering most acutely, and losing both her youth and beauty
with that rapidity which signalizes the decline of women for whom life
has been a long contest, Anne of Austria had, in addition to her
physical sufferings, to experience the bitterness of being no longer
held in any esteem, except as a living remembrance of the past, amid the
youthful beauties, wits, and influences of her court. Her physician's
opinions, her mirror also, grieved her far less than the inexorable
warnings which the society of the courtiers afforded, who, like the rats
in a ship, abandon the hold in which the water is on the point of
penetrating, owing to the ravages of decay. Anne of Austria did not feel
satisfied with the time her eldest son devoted to her. The king, a good
son, more from affectation than from affection, had at first been in the
habit of passing an hour in the morning and one in the evening with his
mother; but, since he had himself undertaken the conduct of state
affairs, the duration of the morning and evening's visit had been
reduced to half; and then, by degrees, the morning visit had been
suppressed altogether. They met at mass; the evening visit was replaced
by a meeting, either at the king's assembly, or at Madame's, which the
queen attended obligingly enough, out of regard to her two sons. The
result was that Madame had acquired an immense influence over the court,
which made her apartments the true royal