nature truly royal. You are about to be a witness of one
of those scenes which the foul fiend alone can conceive and execute.
Listen attentively--you will find your advantage in it."

The prince redoubled his attention, and saw Louis XIV. take from
Colbert's hand a letter which the latter held out to him.

"The late cardinal's handwriting," said the king.

"Your majesty has an excellent memory," replied Colbert, bowing; "it is
an immense advantage for a king who is destined for hard work, to
recognize handwritings at the first glance."

The king read Mazarin's letter, and, as its contents are already known
to the reader, in consequence of the misunderstanding between Madame de
Chevreuse and Aramis, nothing further would be learned if we stated them
here again.

"I do not quite understand," said the king, greatly interested.

"Your majesty has not yet acquired the habit of going through the public
accounts."

"I see that it refers to money which had been given to M. Fouquet."

"Thirteen millions. A tolerably good sum."

"Yes. Well, and these thirteen millions are wanting to balance the total
of the accounts. That is what I do not very well understand. How was
this deficit possible?"

"Possible, I do not say; but there is no doubt about the fact that it
really is so."

"You say that these thirteen millions are found to be wanting in the
accounts?"

"I do not say so, but the registry does."

"And this letter of M. Mazarin indicates the employment of that sum, and
the name of the person with whom it was deposited?"

"As your majesty can judge for yourself."

"Yes; and the result is, then, that M. Fouquet has not yet restored the
thirteen millions."

"That results from the accounts, certainly, sire."

"Well, and, consequently--"

"Well, sire, in that case, inasmuch as M. Fouquet has not yet given back
the thirteen millions, he must have appropriated them to his own
purposes; and with those thirteen millions one could incur four times,
and a little more as much expense, and make four times as great a
display as your majesty was able to do at Fontainebleau, where we only
spent three millions altogether, if you remember."

For a blunderer, the _souvenir_ he had evoked was a very
skillfully-contrived piece of baseness; for by the remembrance of his
own fete he, for the first time, perceived its inferiority compared with
that of Fouquet. Colbert received back again at Vaux what Fouquet had
given him at F