d question me?"
And the musketeer, turning cavalierly on his heel, disappeared. "To
Nantes!" said he to himself, as he descended the stairs. "Why did he not
dare to say from thence to Belle-Isle?"

As he reached the great gates, one of M. Brienne's clerks came running
after him exclaiming, "Monsieur d'Artagnan. I beg your pardon--"

"What is the matter, Monsieur Ariste?"

"The king has desired me to give you this order."

"Upon your cash-box?" asked the musketeer.

"No, monsieur; upon that of M. Fouquet."

[Illustration: THEY SAW, BY THE RED FLASHES OF THE LIGHTNING AGAINST
THE VIOLET FOG WHICH THE WIND STAMPED UPON THE BANKWARD SKY, THEY SAW
PASS GRAVELY, AT SIX PACES BEHIND THE GOVERNOR, A MAN CLOTHED IN BLACK
AND MASKED BY A VISOR OF POLISHED STEEL, SOLDERED TO A HELMET OF THE
SAME NATURE, WHICH ALTOGETHER ENVELOPED THE WHOLE OF HIS
HEAD.--_Page 438._]

D'Artagnan was surprised, but he took the order, which was in the
king's own writing, and was for two hundred pistoles. "What!" thought
he, after having politely thanked M. Brienne's clerk, "M. Fouquet is to
pay for the journey, then! Mordioux! that is a bit of pure Louis XI.!
Why was not this order upon the chest of M. Colbert? He would have paid
it with such joy." And D'Artagnan, faithful to his principle of never
letting an order at sight get cold, went straight to the house of M.
Fouquet, to receive his two hundred pistoles.

CHAPTER CIX.

THE LAST SUPPER.

The surintendant had no doubt received advice of the approaching
departure, for he was giving a farewell dinner to his friends. From the
bottom to the top of the house, the hurry of the servants bearing
dishes, and the diligence of the _registres_, denoted an approaching
change in both offices and kitchen. D'Artagnan, with his order in his
hand, presented himself at the _bureaux_, when he was told it was too
late to pay cash, the chest was closed. He only replied, "On the king's
service."

The clerk, a little put out by the serious air of the captain, replied,
that "that was a very respectable reason, but that the customs of the
house were respectable likewise; and that, in consequence, he begged the
bearer to call again next day." D'Artagnan asked if he could not see M.
Fouquet. The clerk replied that M. le Surintendant did not interfere
with such details; and rudely closed the outer door in D'Artagnan's
face. But the latter had foreseen this stroke, and placed his boot
between the d