Part 33 (1/2)
”Yourthe public accounts”
”I see that it refers to iven to M Fouquet”
”Thirteen ood su to balance the total of the account That is what I do not very well understand Hoas this deficit possible?”
”Possible I do not say; but there is no doubt about fact that it is really so”
”You say that these thirteenin the accounts?”
”I do not say so, but the registry does”
”And this letter of M Mazarin indicates the employment of that sum and the name of the person hoe for yourself”
”Yes; and the result is, then, that M Fouquet has not yet restored the thirteen millions”
”That results from the accounts, certainly, sire”
”Well, and, consequently--”
”Well, sire, in that case, inasiven back the thirteen millions, he must have appropriated them to his own purpose; and with those thirteen millions one could incur four times and a little reat a display, as your majesty was able to do at Fontainebleau, where we only spent three ether, if you remember”
For a blunderer, the _souvenir_ he had evoked was a rather skillfully contrived piece of baseness; for by the remembrance of his own _fete_ he, for the first time, perceived its inferiority coain at Vaux what Fouquet had given hiood financier, returned it with the best possible interest Having once disposed the king'sof much importance to detain hiain sunk into a dull and gloo's lips with as much impatience as Philippe and Aramis did from their place of observation
”Are you ahat is the usual and natural consequence of all this, Monsieur Colbert?” said the king, after a few moments' reflection
”No, sire, I do not know”
”Well, then, the fact of the appropriation of the thirteen millions, if it can be proved--”
”But it is so already”
”I mean if it were to be declared and certified, M Colbert”
”I think it will be to-morrow, if your majesty--”
”Were we not under M Fouquet's roof, you were going to say, perhaps,”
replied the king, with so is in his own palace wherever he may be--especially in houses which the royal money has constructed”
”I think,” said Philippe in a low tone to Araht, anticipating the use it could be put to at a future opportunity, so to have contrived that it ht be made to fall upon the heads of scoundrels such as M Colbert”
”I think so too,” replied Ara_ at this moment”