thousand francs' pension to receive instead of
sixty thousand, and that for a period of ten years."

"Not so, for I shall only be subjected to this reduction of my income
during the period of M. Fouquet's remaining in power, a period which I
estimate at two months."

"Ah!" said Aramis.

"I am frank, you see."

"I thank you for it, duchesse; but you would be wrong to suppose that
after M. Fouquet's disgrace the order would resume the payment of your
pension."

"I know a means of making the order pay, as I know a means of forcing
the queen-mother to concede what I require."

"In that case, duchesse, we are all obliged to strike our flags to you.
The victory is yours, and the triumph also is yours. Be clement, I
entreat you."

"But is it possible," resumed the duchesse, without taking notice of the
irony, "that you really draw back from a miserable sum of five hundred
thousand francs when it is a question of sparing you--I mean your
friend--I beg your pardon, I ought rather to say your protector--the
disagreeable consequences which a party contest produces?"

"Duchesse, I will tell you why; supposing the five hundred thousand
francs were to be given you, M. Laicques will require his share, which
will be another five hundred thousand francs, I presume? and then, after
M. de Laicques, and your own portions have been arranged, the portions
which your children, your poor pensioners, and various other persons
will require, will start up as fresh claims; and these letters, however
compromising they may be in their nature, are not worth from three to
four millions. Can you have forgotten the queen of France's
diamonds?--they were surely worth more than these bits of waste-paper
signed by Mazarin, and yet their recovery did not cost a fourth part of
what you ask for yourself."

"Yes, that is true; but the merchant values his goods at his own price,
and it is for the purchaser to buy or refuse."

"Stay a moment, duchesse; would you like me to tell you why I will not
buy your letters?"

"Pray tell me."

"Because the letters you say are Mazarin's are false."

"What an absurdity!"

"I have no doubt of it, for it would, to say the least, be very
singular, that after you had quarreled with the queen through M.
Mazarin's means, you should have kept up any intimate acquaintance with
the latter; it would look as if you had been acting as a spy; and upon
my word, I do not like to make use of the word."

"Oh! pray say it