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Updated: May 25, 2025
"Ah!" cried D'Artagnan, on perceiving him, "are you still there, monseigneur?" And that word still completed the proof to Fouquet of how much information and how many useful counsels were contained in the first visit the musketeer had paid him. The surintendant sighed deeply. "Good heavens! yes, monsieur," replied he. "The arrival of the king has interrupted me in the projects I had formed."
"Just so: it ought to be on a scale of the most unbounded magnificence." "In that case, I shall have to spend ten or twelve millions." "You shall spend twenty, if you require it," said Aramis, in a perfectly calm voice. "Where shall I get them?" exclaimed Fouquet. "That is my affair, monsieur le surintendant; and do not be uneasy for a moment about it.
But it passed away; reflection came, and D'Artagnan contented himself with saying, "The devil! the devil! I have done well to quit the service of the king. Tell me, worthy Master Bazin," added he, "how many musketeers does monsieur le surintendant retain in his service?"
"Most gratified, indeed, monsieur le surintendant, most gratified. You were very wrong not to come with us, as I invited you to do." "I was working, sire," replied the superintendent, who did not even seem to take the trouble to turn aside his head in merest respect of Colbert's presence. "Ah! M. Fouquet," cried the king, "there is nothing like the country.
Saying these words, and with a profound bow, the musketeer, whose looks had lost none of their intelligent kindness, left the apartment. He had not reached the steps of the vestibule, when Fouquet, quite beside himself, hung to the bell-rope, and shouted, "My horses! my lighter!" But nobody answered. The surintendant dressed himself with everything that came to hand. "Gourville!
Louis kept him engaged in conversation, until he saw D'Artagnau, a name famous in storybooks, and the mousquetaires in the courtyard. Then he gave the signal. The Surintendant was seized and taken to Angers, thence to Amboise, Vincennes, and finally to the Bastille. He was confined in a room lighted only from above, and allowed no communication with family or friends.
But it passed away; reflection came, and D'Artagnan contented himself with saying, "The devil! the devil! I have done well to quit the service of the king. Tell me, worthy Master Bazin," added he, "how many musketeers does monsieur le surintendant retain in his service?"
The King could not conceal his astonishment at the taste and luxury of the Surintendant, nor his annoyance when he recognized the portrait of La Vallière in a mythological panel. Over doors and windows were carved and painted Fouquet's arms, a squirrel, with the motto, "Quò non ascendam?" The King asked a chamberlain for the translation.
D'Artagnan bowed to the compliment. "But, forget that you are Monsieur d'Artagnan, captain of the musketeers; forget that I am Monsieur Fouquet, surintendant of the finances; and let us talk about my affairs." "That is rather a delicate subject." "Indeed?" "Yes; but, for your sake, Monsieur Fouquet, I will do what may almost be regarded as an impossibility." "Thank you.
In 1665, the Châtelet ordered to be burnt Claude Joly's Recueil des Maximes véritables et importantes pour l'Institution du Roi, contre la fausse et pernicieuse politique de Cardinal prétendu surintendant de l'éducation de Louis XIV. ; a book which, if it had been regarded instead of being burnt, might have altered the character of that pernicious devastator, and therefore of history itself, very much for the better.
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