"Yes; the captain of the musketeers, M. d'Artagnan, your friend."

"Yes; I can well say, my friend."

"He who escorted La Valliere to Le Chaillot; he who delivered up Monk,
fastened in an iron box, to Charles II.; he who so faithfully served my
mother; he to whom the crown of France owes so much that it owes
everything. Do you intend to ask me to exile him also?"

"Never, sire. D'Artagnan is a man to whom, at a certain given time, I
will undertake to reveal everything; but be on your guard with him; for
if he discovers our plot before it is revealed to him, you or I will
certainly be killed or taken. He is a bold, enterprising man."

"I will think it over. Now tell me about M. Fouquet; what do you wish to
be done with regard to him?"

"One moment more. I entreat you, monseigneur; and forgive me, if I seem
to fail in respect in questioning you further."

"It is your duty to do so, and, more than that, your right also."

"Before we pass to M. Fouquet, I should very much regret forgetting
another friend of mine."

"M. de Valon, the Hercules of France, you mean; oh! as far as he is
concerned, his fortune is safe."

"No; it is not he whom I intended to refer to."

"The Comte de la Fere, then."

"And his son, the son of all four of us."

"That poor boy who is dying of love for La Valliere, whom my brother so
disloyally deprived him of? Be easy on that score, I shall know how to
restore him. Tell me only one thing, Monsieur d'Herblay; do men, when
they love, forget the treachery that has been shown them? Can a man ever
forgive the woman who has betrayed him? Is that a French custom, or is
it one of the laws of the human heart?"

"A man who loves deeply, as deeply as Raoul loves Mademoiselle de la
Valliere, finishes by forgetting the fault or crime of the woman he
loves; but I do not know if Raoul will be able to forget."

"I will see after that. Have you anything further to say about your
friend?"

"No; that is all."

"Well, then, now for M. Fouquet. What do you wish me to do for him?"

"To continue him as surintendant, as he has hitherto acted, I entreat
you."

"Be it so; but he is the first minister at present."

"Not quite so."

"A king, ignorant and embarrassed as I shall be, will, as a matter of
course, require a first minister of state."

"Your majesty will require a friend."

"I have only one and that is yourself."

"You will have many others by-and-by, but none so devoted, none so
zealou