Court of Daggers by Dumas Alexandre & Dumas Alexandre

Author:Dumas, Alexandre & Dumas, Alexandre [Dumas, Alexandre]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-12-28T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter XXV - Monsieur Fouquet Takes Action

Meanwhile, Monsieur Fouquet raced to the Louvre in a carriage drawn at a gallop by his English horses.

The king was working with Colbert when suddenly he became pensive. The two death sentences he’d signed upon assuming the throne occasionally came back to haunt him. They were two black veils of mourning that he looked through when his eyes were open, and two bloodstains he saw when they were closed. “Monsieur,” he said suddenly to the intendant, “it sometimes seems to me that those two men whom you had me condemn weren’t guilty of so great a fault.”

“Sire, they were chosen from among the corrupt tax-farmers, a herd that needed to be culled.”

“Chosen by whom?”

“By necessity, Sire,” Colbert replied coldly.

“Necessity! An imperious word!” murmured the young king.

“An imperious goddess, Sire.”

“They were close friends of the superintendent, weren’t they?”

“Yes, Sire, friends who would have given their lives for Monsieur Fouquet.”

“And thus, they gave them, Monsieur,” said the king.

“That’s true, but fortunately they gave them in vain—though that wasn’t their intention.”

“How much money had those men embezzled?”

“Ten million, perhaps, six of which were recovered from them.”

“And that money is now in my coffers?” asked the king with a certain repugnance.

“It is, Sire, but that confiscation, though it threatened Monsieur Fouquet, did him no real damage.”

“And you think, Monsieur Colbert…?”

“That if Monsieur Fouquet was willing to raise a troop of brigands against Your Majesty to rescue his friends from execution, he’d raise an army to escape his own punishment.”

The king fixed his confidant with one of those looks that are like lightning in a storm, a glance that lights the very depths of a man’s conscience. “I’m astonished,” he said, “that, thinking Monsieur Fouquet capable of such things, you never gave me advance warning.”

“A warning of what, Sire?”

“Tell me first, clearly and precisely, what you think, Monsieur Colbert.”

“About what?”

“About the conduct of Monsieur Fouquet.”

“I think, Sire, that Monsieur Fouquet, not content with gathering money to himself, as Monsieur de Mazarin did, thus depriving Your Majesty of part of his power, wants in addition to gather to him all those friends of pleasure and easy living who make what the lazy call poetry, but what politicians call corruption. I think that, by buying the loyalty of Your Majesty’s subjects, he is encroaching on the royal prerogative, and will inevitably end, if he’s allowed to continue, by relegating Your Majesty to weakness and obscurity.”

“And what are such projects called, Monsieur Colbert?”

“Monsieur Fouquet’s projects, Sire?”

“Yes.”

“They’re considered crimes of lèse-majesté . ” 61

“And what do we do to those who commit lèse-majesté?”

“They are arrested, judged, and punished.”

“Are you certain Monsieur Fouquet has the intention of committing the crimes you impute to him?”

“I’ll say more than that, Sire—he is beginning to carry them out.”

“Well, then! I return to my question, Monsieur Colbert.”

“What was that, Sire?”

“What are you warning me about?”

“Pardon me, Sire, but before I say that I have one more thing to add.”

“Speak.”

“We have clear, obvious, and palpable proof of treason.”

“What?”

“I’ve just learned that Monsieur Fouquet is fortifying Belle-Île-en-Mer.

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