" replied Aramis.

"He will be ruined, you mean?" said D'Artagnan.

"Completely so."

"Why does he give these fetes, then?" said the musketeer, in a tone so
full of thoughtful consideration, and so well assumed, that the bishop
was for the moment deceived by it. "Why did you not dissuade him from
it?"

The latter part of the phrase was just a little too much, and Aramis'
former suspicions were again aroused. "It is done with the object of
humoring the king."

"By ruining himself?"

"Yes, by ruining himself for the king."

"A singular calculation that."

"Necessity."

"I don't see that, dear Aramis."

"Do you not? Have you not remarked M. Colbert's daily increasing
antagonism, and that he is doing his utmost to drive the king to get rid
of the surintendant?"

"One must be blind not to see it."

"And that a cabal is formed against M. Fouquet?"

"That is well known."

"What likelihood is there that the king would join a party formed
against a man who will have spent everything he had to please him."

"True, true," said D'Artagnan, slowly, hardly convinced, yet curious to
broach another phase of the conversation. "There are follies, and
follies," he resumed, "and I do not like those you are committing."

"What do you allude to?"

"As for the banquet, the ball, the concert, the theatricals, the
tournaments, the cascades, the fireworks, the illuminations, and the
presents--these are all well and good, I grant; but why were not these
expenses sufficient? Was it necessary to have new liveries and costumes
for your whole household?"

"You are quite right. I told M. Fouquet that myself; he replied that if
he were rich enough he would offer the king a newly erected chateau,
from the vanes at the top of the house to the very cellar: completely
new inside and out; and that, as soon as the king had left, he would
burn the whole building and its contents, in order that it might not be
made use of by any one else."

"How completely Spanish!"

"I told him so, and he then added this: 'Whoever advises me to spare
expense, I shall look upon as my enemy.'"

"It is positive madness; and that portrait, too!"

"What portrait?" said Aramis.

"That of the king, and the surprise as well."

"What surprise?"

"The surprise you seem to have in view, and on account of which you took
some specimens away, when I met you at Percerin's." D'Artagnan paused.
The shaft was discharged, and all he had to do was to wait and w