He was still at her feet, kissing her hand, when Pélisson entered precipitately, crying, in very ill-humor, “Monseigneur! Madame! for Heaven’s sake! excuse me. Monseigneur, you have been here half an hour. Oh! do not both look at me so reproachfully. Madame, pray who is that lady who left your house soon after Monseigneur came in?”
“Madame Vanel,” said Fouquet.
“Ha!” cried Pélisson, “I was sure of that.”
“Well! what then?”
“Why, she got into her carriage, looking deadly pale.”
“What consequence is that to me?”
“Yes, but what she said to her coachman is of consequence to you.”
“Kind heaven!” cried the marquise, “what was that?”
“To M. Colbert’s!” said Pélisson, in a hoarse voice.
“Bon Dieu!—begone, begone, Monseigneur!” replied the marquise, pushing Fouquet out of the salon, whilst Pélisson dragged him by the hand.
“Am I, then, indeed,” said the superintendent, “become a child, to be frightened by a shadow?”
“You are a giant,” said the marquise, “whom a viper is trying to bite in the heel.”
Pélisson continued to drag Fouquet to the carriage. “To the Palais at full speed!” cried Pélisson to the coachman. The horses set off like lightening; no obstacle relaxed their pace for an instant. Only, at the arcade Saint-Jean, as they were coming out upon the Place de Grève, a long file of horsemen, barring the narrow passage, stopped the carriage of the superintendent. There was no means of forcing this barrier; it was necessary to wait till the mounted archers of the watch, for it was they who stopped the way, had passed with the heavy carriage they were escorting, and which ascended rapidly towards the Place Baudoyer. Fouquet and Pélisson took no further account of this circumstance beyond deploring the minute’s delay they had thus to submit to. They entered the habitation of the concierge du palais five minutes after. That officer was still walking about in the front court. At the name of Fouquet, whispered in his ear by Pélisson, the governor eagerly approached the carriage, and, hat in hand, was profuse in his attentions. “What an honor for me, Monseigneur,” said he.
“One word, Monsieur le Governeur, will you take the trouble to get into my carriage?” The officer placed himself opposite Fouquet in the coach.
“Monsieur,” said Fouquet, “I have a service to ask of you.”
“Speak, Monseigneur.”
“A service that will be compromising for you, Monsieur, but which will assure to you forever my protection and my friendship.”
“Were it to cast myself into the fire for you, Monseigneur, I would do it.”
“That is well,” said Fouquet; “what I require is much more simple.”
“That being so, Monseigneur, what is it?”
“To conduct me to the chamber of Messieurs Lyodot and D’Eymeris.”
“Will Monseigneur have the kindness to say for what purpose?”
“I will tell you that in their presence, Monsieur; at the same time that I will give you ample means of palliating this escape.”
“Escape! Why, then, Monseigneur does not know?”
“What?”
“That Messieurs Lyodot and D’Eymeris are no longer here.”
“Since when?” cried Fouquet, in great agitation.
“About a quarter of an hour.”
“Whither have they gone, then?”
“To Vincennes—to the donjon.”
“Who took them from here?”
“An order from the king.”
“Oh! woe! woe!” exclaimed Fouquet, striking his forehead. “Woe!” and without saying a single word more to the governor, he threw himself back into his carriage, despair in his heart, and death on his countenance.
“Well!” said Pélisson, with great anxiety.
“Our friends are lost. Colbert is conveying them to the donjon. They crossed our path under the arcade Saint-Jean.”
Pélisson, struck as by a thunderbolt, made no reply. With a single reproach he would have killed his master. “Where is Monseigneur going?” said the footman.
“Home—to Paris. You, Pélisson, return to Saint-Mandé, and bring the Abbé Fouquet to me within an hour. Begone!”
60
Plan of Battle
The night was already far advanced when the Abbé Fouquet joined his brother. Gourville had accompanied him. These three men, pale with dread of future events, resembled less three powers of the day than three conspirators, united by one single thought of violence. Fouquet walked for a long time, with his eyes fixed upon the floor, striking his hands one against the other. At length, taking courage, in the midst of a deep sigh: “Abbé,” said he, “you were speaking to me only today of certain people you maintain.”
“Yes, Monsieur,” replied the abbé.
“Tell me precisely who are these people.” The abbé hesitated.
“Come! no fear, I am not threatening; no romancing, for I am not joking.”
“Since you demand the truth, Monseigneur, here it is:—I have a hundred and twenty friends or companions of pleasure, who are sworn to me as the thief is to the gallows.”
“And you think you can depend on them?”
“Entirely.”
“And you will not compromise yourself?”
“I will not even make my appearance.”
“Are they men of resolution?”
“They would burn Paris, if I promised them they should not be burnt in turn.”
“The thing I ask of you, abbé,” said Fouquet, wiping the sweat which fell from his brow, “is to throw your hundred and twenty men upon the people I will point out to you, at a certain moment given—is it possible?”
“It will not be the first time such a thing has happened to them, Monseigneur.”
“That is well: but would these bandits attack an armed force?”
“They are used to that.”
“Then get your hundred and twenty men together, abbé.”
“Directly. But where?”
“On the road to Vincennes, tomorrow, at two o’clock precisely.”
“To carry off Lyodot and D’Eymeris? There will be blows to be got!”
“A number, no doubt; are you afraid?”
“Not for myself, but for you.”
“Your men will know, then, what they have to do?”
“They are too intelligent not to guess it. Now, a minister who gets up a riot
