by that single word."

"I asked where you lodged, for I cannot always send to M. le Comte de la
Fere to seek you."

"I lodge with M. Planchet, a grocer, Rue des Lombards, at the sign of
the Pilon d'Or."

"Go out but little, show yourself less, and await my orders."

"And yet, sire, I must go for the money."

"That is true, but when going to the superintendence, where so many
people are constantly going, you must mingle with the crowd."

"I want the notes, sire, for the money."

"Here they are." The king signed them, and D'Artagnan looked on, to
assure himself of their regularity.

"Adieu! Monsieur d'Artagnan," added the king; "I think you have
perfectly understood me."

"I? I understand that your majesty sends me to Belle-Ile-en-Mer, that is
all."

"To learn?"

"To learn how M. Fouquet's works are going on; that is all."

"Very well: I admit you may be taken."

"And I do not admit it," replied the Gascon, boldly.

"I admit you may be killed," continued the king.

"That is not probable, sire."

"In the first case, you must not speak; in the second there must be no
papers found upon you."

D'Artagnan shrugged his shoulders without ceremony, and took leave of
the king, saying to himself:--"The English shower continues--let us
remain under the spout!"

Chapter LIV. The Houses of M. Fouquet.

Whilst D'Artagnan was returning to Planchet's house, his head aching and
bewildered with all that had happened to him, there was passing a scene
of quite a different character, and which, nevertheless, is not foreign
to the conversation our musketeer had just had with the king; only
this scene took place out of Paris, in a house possessed by the
superintendent Fouquet in the village of Saint-Mande. The minister had
just arrived at this country-house, followed by his principal clerk, who
carried an enormous portfolio full of papers to be examined, and
others waiting for signature. As it might be about five o'clock in the
afternoon, the masters had dined: supper was being prepared for twenty
subaltern guests. The superintendent did not stop: on alighting from his
carriage, he, at the same bound, sprang through the doorway, traversed
the apartments and gained his cabinet, where he declared he would shut
himself up to work, commanding that he should not be disturbed for
anything but an order from the king. As soon as this order was given,
Fouquet shut himself up, and two footmen were placed as sentinels at his