Part 41 (1/2)
”However softly any one neur, Ara I repeat what I said before--Aramis was not in his own roo norant, and of which you e-man is His Greatness the Lord Bishop of Vannes”
Fouquet drew a deep sigh, rose from his seat, took three or four turns in his roo hinificent bed with velvet hangings, and costliest lace D'Artagnan looked at Fouquet with feelings of the deepest and sincerest pity
”I have seen a good many men arrested in my life,” said the musketeer, sadly; ”I have seen both M de Cinq-Mars and M de Chalais arrested, though I was very young then I have seen M de Conde arrested with the princes; I have seen M de Retz arrested; I have seen M Broussel arrested Stay a reeable to have to say, but the very one of all those whom you most resemble at thisas he did, putting your dinner napkin in your portfolio, and wiping your neur Fouquet, a ht not to be dejected in this nan,” returned the surintendant, with a sentleness, ”you do not understandon, that I am as you see me now I do not live, exist even, isolated fro when left to hout my whole life I have passed everyfriends, whom I hoped to render my stay and support
In times of prosperity, all these cheerful, happy voices--rendered so through and by my means--formed in my honor a concert of praise and kindly actions In the least disfavor, these humbler voices accompanied in harmonious accents the murmur of my own heart Isolation I have never yet known Poverty (a phanto h life)--poverty has been the specter hich many of my own friends have trifled for years past, which they poetize and caress, and which has attracted e it, receive it, as a disinherited sister; for poverty is neither solitude, nor exile, nor imprisonment
Is it likely I shall ever be poor, with such friends as Pelisson, as La Fontaine, as Moliere? with such a mistress as--Oh! if you kne utterly lonely and desolate I feel at this moment, and how you, who separate e of solitude, of annihilation--death itself”
”But I have already told you, Monsieur Fouquet,” replied D'Artagnan, erating
The king likes you”
”No, no,” said Fouquet, shaking his head
”M Colbert hates you”
”M Colbert! What does that matter to me?”
”He will ruin you”
”Ah! I defy hiular confession of the superintendent, D'Artagnan cast his glance all round the rooh he did not open his lips, Fouquet understood hihly, that he added: ”What can be done with such wealth of substance as surrounds us, when a nificent? Do you knohat good the greater part of the wealth and the possessions which we rich enjoy, confer upon us? ust us, by their very splendor even, with everything which does not equal it! Vaux! you will say, and the wonders of Vaux! What of it? What boot these wonders? If I am ruined, how shall I fill ater the urns which s of nan, a nan shook his head
”Oh! I know very hat you think,” replied Fouquet, quickly ”If Vaux were yours, you would sell it, and would purchase an estate in the country; an estate which should have woods, orchards, and land attached, so that the estate should be ht--”
”Ten nan
”Not a ive two millions for Vaux, and to continue to maintain it as I have done; no one could do it, no one would kno”
”Well,” said D'Artagnan, ”in any case, a million is not abject misery”
”It is not far from it, my dear monsieur But you do not understand ive it to you, if you like;” and Fouquet accompanied these words with a movement of the shoulders to which it would be i; you willdoes not require ive it to him,” said Fouquet; ”he will take it away frorace, if it pleases him to do so; and that is the very reason I should prefer to see it perish Do you know, Monsieur d'Artagnan, that if the king did not happen to be under ht to the doe chests of fusees and fireworks which are in reserve there, and would reduce ently ”At all events, you would not be able to burn the gardens, and that is the finest feature of the place”
”And yet,” resu? Great heavens! burn Vaux! destroy my palace! But Vaux is not mine; these wonderful creations are, it is true, the property, as far as sense of enjoyoes, of the man who has paid for the to those who created thes to Lebrun, to Lenotre, to Pelisson, to Levau, to La Fontaine, to Moliere; Vaux belongs to posterity, in fact You see, Monsieur d'Artagnan, that my very house has ceased to be nan; ”the idea is agreeable enough, and I recognize M Fouquet hiet that poor fellow Broussel altogether; and I now fail to recognize in you the whining complaints of that old Frondeur If you are ruined, monsieur, look at the affairto posterity, and have no right to lessen yourself in any way
Stay a ree a kind of superiority over you, because I a you; fate, which distributes their different parts to the coreeable and less advantageous part to fill than yours has been I as and powerful nobles are called upon to act are infinitely of ars or lackeys It is far better on the stage--on the stage, I mean, of another theater than the theater of this world--it is far better to wear a fine coat and to talk a fine language, than to walk the boards shod with a pair of old shoes, or to get one's backbone gently polished by a hearty dressing with a stick In one word, you have been a prodigal with money, you have ordered and been obeyed--have been steeped to the lips in enjoyed my tether after edineur, I do declare to you, that the recollection of what I have done servesmy old head too soon I shall remain unto the very end a trooper; and when ht, all in a heap, still alive, after having selected my place beforehand Do as I do, Monsieur Fouquet, you will not find yourself the worse for it; a fall happens only once in a lifetiracefully when the chance presents itself There is a Latin proverb--the words have escaped ht over it more than once--which says, 'The end crowns the work!'”