Austria's frown
relaxed a little, she even almost smiled. Fouquet perceived that the
king, instead of reading, was looking at him; he turned half round,
therefore, and while continuing his conversation with the queen, faced
the king.

"You know, Monsieur Fouquet," said Louis, "how ill M. Mazarin is?"

"Yes, sire, I know that," said Fouquet; "in fact, he is very ill. I was
at my country-house of Vaux when the news reached me; and the affair
seemed so pressing that I left at once."

"You left Vaux this evening, monsieur?"

"An hour and a half ago, yes, your majesty," said Fouquet, consulting a
watch, richly ornamented with diamonds.

"An hour and a half!" said the king, still able to restrain his anger,
but not to conceal his astonishment.

"I understand you, sire. Your majesty doubts my word, and you have
reason to do so; but I have really come in that time, though it is
wonderful! I received from England three pairs of very fast horses, as
I had been assured. They were placed at distances of four leagues apart,
and I tried them this evening. They really brought me from Vaux to
the Louvre in an hour and a half, so your majesty sees I have not been
cheated." The queen-mother smiled with something like secret envy. But
Fouquet caught her thought. "Thus, madame," he promptly said, "such
horses are made for kings, not for subjects; for kings ought never to
yield to any one in anything."

The king looked up.

"And yet," interrupted Anne of Austria, "you are not a king, that I know
of, M. Fouquet."

"Truly not, madame; therefore the horses only await the orders of his
majesty to enter the royal stables; and if I allowed myself to try
them, it was only for fear of offering to the king anything that was not
positively wonderful."

The king became quite red.

"You know, Monsieur Fouquet," said the queen, "that at the court of
France it is not the custom for a subject to offer anything to his
king."

Louis started.

"I hoped, madame," said Fouquet, much agitated, "that my love for his
majesty, my incessant desire to please him, would serve to compensate
the want of etiquette. It was not so much a present that I permitted
myself to offer, as the tribute I paid."

"Thank you, Monsieur Fouquet," said the king politely, "and I am
gratified by your intention, for I love good horses; but you know I
am not very rich; you, who are my superintendent of finances, know it
better than any one else. I am not able, then, ho