wever quick he may be."

"Double ass that you are!" thought D'Artagnan; "if I had any interest or
motive in demolishing your credit, I could do it in ten minutes. If I
were in the king's place," he added, aloud, "I should, in going to M.
Fouquet, leave my escort behind me; I should go to him as a friend; I
should enter accompanied only by my captain of the guards; I should
consider that I was acting more nobly, and should be invested with a
still more sacred character by doing so."

Delight sparkled in the king's eyes. "That is indeed a very good
suggestion. We will go to see a friend as friends; those gentlemen who
are with the carriages can go slowly: but we who are mounted will ride
on." And he rode off, accompanied by all those who were mounted. Colbert
hid his ugly head behind his horse's neck.

"I shall be quits," said D'Artagnan, as he galloped along, "by getting a
little talk with Aramis this evening. And then, M. Fouquet is a man of
honor. Mordioux! I have said so, and it must be so."

And this was the way how, toward seven o'clock in the evening, without
announcing his arrival by the din of trumpets, and without even his
advanced guard, without out-riders or musketeers, the king presented
himself before the gate of Vaux, where Fouquet, who had been informed of
his royal guest's approach, had been waiting for the last half-hour,
with his head uncovered, surrounded by his household and his friends.

CHAPTER LXXXVII.

NECTAR AND AMBROSIA.

M. Fouquet held the stirrup of the king, who, having dismounted, bowed
most graciously, and more graciously still held out his hand to him,
which Fouquet, in spite of a slight resistance on the king's part,
carried respectfully to his lips. The king wished to wait in the first
courtyard for the arrival of the carriages, nor had he long to wait, for
the roads had been put into excellent order by the surintendant, and a
stone would hardly have been found of the size of an egg the whole way
from Melun to Vaux; so that the carriages, rolling along as though on a
carpet, brought the ladies to Vaux, without jolting or fatigue, by eight
o'clock. They were received by Madame Fouquet, and at the moment these
made their appearance, a light as bright as day burst forth from all the
trees, and vases, and marble statues. This species of enchantment lasted
until their majesties had retired into the palace. All these wonders and
magical effects which the chronicler has heaped u