he conversation.

[ILLUSTRATION: "YOU WILL LOOK THROUGH THE OPENING, WHICH ANSWERS TO
ONE OF THE FALSE WINDOWS MADE IN THE DOME OF THE KING'S APARTMENT. CAN
YOU SEE?"--_Page 356._]

"Well, and so we have come to Vaux," he said.

"Why, yes, D'Artagnan. And how do do you like the place?"

"Very much, and I like M. Fouquet also."

"Is he not a charming host?"

"No one could be more so."

"I am told that the king began by showing a great distance in his manner
toward M. Fouquet, but that his majesty became much more cordial
afterward."

"You did not notice it, then, since you say you have been told so?"

"No; I was engaged with those gentlemen who have just left the room
about the theatrical performances and the tournament which are to take
place to-morrow."

"Ah, indeed! you are the comptroller-general of the fetes, here, then?"

"You know I am a friend of all kinds of amusement where the exercise of
the imagination is required; I have always been a poet in one way or
another."

"Yes, I remember the verses you used to write, they were charming."

"I have forgotten them; but I am delighted to read the verses of others,
when those others are known by the names of Moliere, Pellisson, La
Fontaine, etc."

"Do you know what idea occurred to me this evening, Aramis?"

"No; tell me what it was, for I should never be able to guess it, you
have so many."

"Well, the idea occurred to me, that the true king of France is not
Louis XIV."

"What!" said Aramis, involuntarily, looking the musketeer full in the
eyes.

"No, it is Monsieur Fouquet."

Aramis breathed again and smiled.

"Ah! you are like all the rest, jealous," he said. "I would wager that
it was M. Colbert who turned that pretty phrase." D'Artagnan, in order
to throw Aramis off his guard, related Colbert's misadventure with
regard to the vin de Melun.

"He comes of a mean race, does Colbert," said Aramis.

"Quite true."

"When I think, too," added the bishop, "that that fellow will be your
minister within four months, and that you will serve him as blindly as
you did Richelieu or Mazarin--"

"And as you serve M. Fouquet," said D'Artagnan.

"With this difference, though, that M. Fouquet is not M. Colbert."

"True, true," said D'Artagnan, as he pretended to become sad and full of
reflection; and then, a moment after, he added, "Why do you tell me that
M. Colbert will be minister in four months?"

"Because M. Fouquet will have ceased to be so,