ose; upon which Vanel, who felt the blood rushing
up to his head, for he was quite confounded by his success, said
seriously to the surintendant, "Will you give me your word, monseigneur,
upon this affair?"

Fouquet turned round his head, saying:

"Pardieu! and you, monsieur?"

Vanel hesitated, trembled all over, and at last finished by hesitatingly
holding out his hand. Fouquet opened and nobly extended his own; this
loyal hand lay for a moment in Vanel's moist hypocritical palm, and he
pressed it in his own, in order the better to convince himself of its
truth. The surintendant gently disengaged his hand, as he again said:

"Adieu!"

And then Vanel ran hastily to the door, hurried along the vestibules,
and fled away as quickly as he could.

CHAPTER LIV.

MADAME DE BELLIERE'S PLATE AND DIAMONDS.

Hardly had Fouquet dismissed Vanel, than he began to reflect for a few
moments: "A man never can do too much for the woman he has once loved.
Marguerite wishes to be the wife of a procureur-general--and why not
confer this pleasure upon her? And now that the most scrupulous and
sensitive conscience will be unable to reproach me with anything, let my
thoughts be bestowed on her who has shown so much devotion for me.
Madame de Belliere ought to be there by this time," he said, as he
turned toward the secret door.

After he had locked himself in, he opened the subterranean passage, and
rapidly hastened toward the means of communicating between the house at
Vincennes and his own residence. He had neglected to apprise his friend
of his approach by ringing the bell, perfectly assured that she would
never fail to be exact at the rendezvous; as, indeed, was the case, for
she was already waiting. The noise the surintendant made aroused her;
she ran to take from under the door the letter that he had thrust there,
and which simply said, "Come, marquise; we are waiting supper for you."
With her heart filled with happiness Madame de Belliere ran to her
carriage in the Avenue de Vincennes, and in a few minutes she was
holding out her hand to Gourville, who was standing at the entrance,
where, in order the better to please his master, he had stationed
himself to watch her arrival. She had not observed that Fouquet's black
horses had arrived at the same time, smoking and covered with foam,
having returned to Saint-Mande with Pellisson and the very jeweler to
whom Madame de Belliere had sold her plate and her jewels. Pelliss