Part 54 (1/2)
”Be it so!” h and large enough for those who the 'four hours' start' which you have given to M
d'Herblay”
”In giving hi him his life, and he will save his life”
”In ay?”
”After having galloped as hard as possible, with the four hours' start, before your musketeers, he will reach iven hiet that you have made me a present of Belle-Isle”
”But not for you to arrest ain, then?”
”As far as that goes--yes, sire”
”My musketeers shall capture it, and the affair will be at an end”
”Neither your musketeers, nor your whole army could take Belle-Isle,”
said Fouquet, coldly ”Belle-Isle is ihtning flash seemed to dart from his eyes Fouquet felt that he was lost, but he as not one to shrink when the voice of honor spoke loudly within hiaze; the latter sed his rage, and after a fewto return to Vaux?”
”I am at your majesty's orders,” replied Fouquet, with a lo; ”but I think that youryour clothes previous to appearing before your court”
”We shall pass by the Louvre,” said the king ”Co before Baisemeaux, who looked completely bewildered as he saw Marchiali once more leave; and, in his helplessness, tore out thehairs It was perfectly true, however, that Fouquet wrote and gave hi wrote beneath it, ”Seen and approved, Louis”; a piece of ether, acknowledged by giving himself a terrible blow on the forehead with his own fist
Chapter XXIV The False King
In theout its part bravely at Vaux Philippe gave orders that for his _petit lever_ the _grandes entrees_, already prepared to appear before the king, should be introduced He deter the absence of M d'Herblay, who did not return--our readers know the reason But the prince, not believing that absence could be prolonged, wished, as all rash spirits do, to try his valor and his fortune far froed hiuilty mother was about to stand in the presence of her sacrificed son Philippe was not willing, if he had a weakness, to render the man a witness of it before whoth Philippe opened his folding doors, and several persons entered silently Philippe did not stir whilst his _valets de cha before, all the habits of his brother, and played the king in such a manner as to awaken no suspicion He was thus co costume when he received his visitors His own memory and the notes of Aramis announced everybody to hiave his hand, and then Mada these countenances, but tre his ed by pain, pleaded in his heart the cause of the famous queen who had immolated a child to reasons of state He found his mother still handsome He knew that Louis XIV loved her, and he proe to her old age He contemplated his brother with a tenderness easily to be understood
The latter had usurped nothing, had cast no shades athwart his life A separate tree, he allowed the ste its elevation or majestic life Philippe promised himself to be a kind brother to this prince, who required nothing but gold to minister to his pleasures He boith a friendly air to Saint-Aignan, as all reverences and s held out his hand to Henrietta, his sister-in-lahose beauty struck him; but he saw in the eyes of that princess an expression of coldness which would facilitate, as he thought, their future relations
”How ht he, ”it will be to be the brother of that woallant, if she evinces towards me a coldness that my brother could not have for her, but which is imposed upon me as a duty”
The only visit he dreaded at this moment was that of the queen; his heart--his mind--had just been shaken by so violent a trial, that, in spite of their firm temperament, they would not, perhaps, support another shock Happily the queen did not come Then commenced, on the part of Anne of Austria, a political dissertation upon the welcoiven to the house of France She , and questions as to his health, with little maternal flatteries and diplomatic artifices
”Well, ard to M Fouquet?”
”Saint-Aignan,” said Philippe, ”have the goodness to go and inquire after the queen”
At these words, the first Philippe had pronounced aloud, the slight difference that there was between his voice and that of the king was sensible to maternal ears, and Anne of Austria looked earnestly at her son Saint-Aignan left the room, and Philippe continued:
”Madame, I do not like to hear M Fouquet ill-spoken of, you know I do not--and you have even spoken well of him yourself”
”That is true; therefore I only question you on the state of your sentiments with respect to him”