The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas (web based ebook reader .TXT) đ
![](/uploads/posts/books/3/0/9/9/7/the-man-in-the-iron-mask.jpg)
- Author: Alexandre Dumas
Book online «The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas (web based ebook reader .TXT) đ». Author Alexandre Dumas
âWell! and what have you done?â
âSire, I gave M. dâHerblay the best horses in my stables and four hoursâ start over all those your majesty might, probably, dispatch after him.â
âBe it so!â murmured the king. âBut still, the world is wide enough and large enough for those whom I may send to overtake your horses, notwithstanding the âfour hoursâ startâ which you have given to M. dâHerblay.â
âIn giving him these four hours, sire, I knew I was giving him his life, and he will save his life.â
âIn what way?â
âAfter having galloped as hard as possible, with the four hoursâ start, before your musketeers, he will reach my chateau of Belle-Isle, where I have given him a safe asylum.â
âThat may be! But you forget that you have made me a present of Belle-Isle.â
âBut not for you to arrest my friends.â
âYou take it back again, then?â
âAs far as that goesâyes, sire.â
âMy musketeers shall capture it, and the affair will be at an end.â
âNeither your musketeers, nor your whole army could take Belle-Isle,â said Fouquet, coldly. âBelle-Isle is impregnable.â
The king became perfectly livid; a lightning 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 him. He bore the kingâs wrathful gaze; the latter swallowed his rage, and after a few momentsâ silence, said, âAre we going to return to Vaux?â
âI am at your majestyâs orders,â replied Fouquet, with a low bow; âbut I think that your majesty can hardly dispense with changing your clothes previous to appearing before your court.â
âWe shall pass by the Louvre,â said the king. âCome.â And they left the prison, passing before Baisemeaux, who looked completely bewildered as he saw Marchiali once more leave; and, in his helplessness, tore out the major portion of his few remaining hairs. It was perfectly true, however, that Fouquet wrote and gave him an authority for the prisonerâs release, and that the king wrote beneath it, âSeen and approved, Louisâ; a piece of madness that Baisemeaux, incapable of putting two ideas together, acknowledged by giving himself a terrible blow on the forehead with his own fist.
Chapter XXIV. The False King.
In the meantime, usurped royalty was playing out 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 determined to give this order notwithstanding the absence of M. dâHerblay, who did not returnâour 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 from all protection and instruction. Another reason urged him to thisâAnne of Austria was about to appear; the guilty 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 whom he was bound thenceforth to display so much strength. Philippe opened his folding doors, and several persons entered silently. Philippe did not stir whilst his valets de chambre dressed him. He had watched, the evening before, all the habits of his brother, and played the king in such a manner as to awaken no suspicion. He was thus completely dressed in hunting costume when he received his visitors. His own memory and the notes of Aramis announced everybody to him, first of all Anne of Austria, to whom Monsieur gave his hand, and then Madame with M. de Saint-Aignan. He smiled at seeing these countenances, but trembled on recognizing his mother. That still so noble and imposing figure, ravaged 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 promised himself to love her likewise, and not to prove a scourge 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 stem to rise without heeding 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 bowed with a friendly air to Saint-Aignan, who was all reverences and smiles, and trembling held out his hand to Henrietta, his sister-in-law, whose 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.
âHow much more easy,â thought he, âit will be to be the brother of that woman than her gallant, if she evinces towards me a coldness that my brother could not have for her, but which is imposed upon me as a duty.â The only visit he dreaded at this moment was that of the queen; his heartâhis mindâhad 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 welcome M. Fouquet had given to the house of France. She mixed up hostilities with compliments addressed to the king, and questions as to his health, with little maternal flatteries and diplomatic artifices.
âWell, my son,â said she, âare you convinced with regard to M. Fouquet?â
âSaint-Aignan,â said Philippe, âhave the goodness to go and inquire after the queen.â
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:
âMadame, I do not like to hear M. Fouquet ill-spoken of, you know I do notâand you have even spoken well of him yourself.â
âThat is true; therefore I only question you on the state of your sentiments with respect to him.â
âSire,â said Henrietta, âI, on my part, have always liked M. Fouquet. He is a man of good taste,âa superior man.â
âA superintendent who is never sordid or niggardly,â added Monsieur; âand who pays in gold all the orders I have on him.â
âEvery one in this thinks too much of himself, and nobody for the state,â said the old queen. âM. Fouquet, it is a fact, M. Fouquet is ruining the state.â
âWell, mother!â replied Philippe, in rather a lower key, âdo you likewise
Comments (0)