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- Author: Alexandre Dumas
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"Impossible, sire, for there have already been creations upon creations of offices, the provisions of which are given in blank, so that the purchasers enjoy them without filling them. That is why your majesty cannot make them resign. Further, upon each agreement M. Fouquet has made an abatement of a third, so that the people have been plundered, without your majesty profiting by it."
The king started. "Explain me that, M. Colbert," he said.
"Let your majesty set down clearly your thought, and tell me what you wish me to explain."
"You are right, clearness is what you wish, is it not?"
"Yes, sire, clearness. God is God above all things, because He made light."
"Well, for example," resumed Louis XIV., "if to-day, the cardinal being dead, and I being king, suppose I wanted money?"
"Your majesty would not have any."
"Oh! that is strange, monsieur! How! my superintendent would not find me any money?"
Colbert shook his large head.
"How is that?" said the king; "is the income of the state so much in debt that there is no longer any revenue?"
"Yes, sire."
The king frowned and said, "If it be so, I will get together the ordonnances to obtain a discharge from the holders, a liquidation at a cheap rate."
"Impossible, for the ordonnances have been converted into bills, which bills, for the convenience of return and facility of transaction, are divided into so many parts that the originals can no longer be recognized."
Louis, very much agitated, walked about, still frowning. "But, if this is as you say, Monsieur Colbert," said he, stopping all at once, "I shall be ruined before I begin to reign."
"You are, in fact, sire," said the impassible caster-up of figures.
"Well, but yet, monsieur, the money is somewhere?"
"Yes, sire, and even as a beginning, I bring your majesty a note of funds which M. le Cardinal Mazarin was not willing to set down in his testament, neither in any act whatever, but which he confided to me."
"To you?"
"Yes, sire, with an injunction to remit it to your majesty."
"What! besides the forty millions of the testament?"
"Yes, sire."
"M. de Mazarin had still other funds?"
Colbert bowed.
"Why, that man was a gulf!" murmured the king. "M. de Mazarin on one side, M. Fouquet on the other,--more than a hundred millions perhaps between them! No wonder my coffers should be empty!" Colbert waited without stirring.
"And is the sum you bring me worth the trouble?" asked the king.
"Yes, sire, it is a round sum."
"Amounting to how much?"
"To thirteen millions of livres, sire."
"Thirteen millions!" cried Louis, trembling with joy; "do you say thirteen millions, Monsieur Colbert?"
"I said thirteen millions, yes, your majesty."
"Of which everybody is ignorant?"
"Of which everybody is ignorant."
"Which are in your hands?"
"In my hands, yes, sire."
"And which I can have?"
"Within two hours, sire."
"But where are they, then?"
"In the cellar of a house which the cardinal possessed in the city, and which he was so kind as to leave me by a particular clause of his will."
"You are acquainted with the cardinal's will, then?"
"I have a duplicate of it, signed by his hand."
"A duplicate?"
"Yes, sire, and here it is." Colbert drew the deed quietly from his pocket, and showed it to the king. The king read the article relative to the donation of the house.
"But," said he, "there is no question here but of the house; there is nothing said of the money."
"Your pardon, sire, it is in my conscience."
"And Monsieur Mazarin has intrusted it to you?"
"Why not, sire?"
"He! a man mistrustful of everybody?"
"He was not so of me, sire, as your majesty may perceive."
Louis fixed his eyes with admiration upon that vulgar but expressive face. "You are an honest man, M. Colbert," said the king.
"That is not a virtue, it is a duty," replied Colbert, coolly.
"But," added Louis, "does not the money belong to the family?"
"If this money belonged to the family it would be disposed of in the testament, as the rest of the fortune is. If this money belonged to the family, I, who drew up the deed of donation in favor of your majesty, should have added the sum of thirteen millions to that of forty millions which was offered to you."
"How!" exclaimed Louis XIV., "was it you who drew up the deed of donation?"
"Yes, sire."
"And yet the cardinal was attached to you?" added the king, ingenuously.
"I had assured his eminence you would by no means accept the gift," said Colbert, in that same quiet manner we have described, and which, even in the common habits of life, had something solemn in it.
Louis passed his hand over his brow: "Oh! how young I am," murmured he, "to have command of men."
Colbert waited the end of this monologue. He saw Louis raise his head. "At what hour shall I send the money to your majesty?" asked he.
"To-night, at eleven o'clock; I desire that no one may know that I possess this money."
Colbert made no more reply than if the thing had not been said to him.
"Is the amount in ingots, or coined gold?"
"In coined gold, sire."
"That is well."
"Where shall I send it?"
"To the Louvre. Thank you, M. Colbert."
Colbert bowed and retired. "Thirteen millions!" exclaimed Louis, as soon as he was alone. "This must be a dream!" Then he allowed his head to sink between his hands, as if he were really asleep. But, at the end of a moment, he arose, and opening the window violently, he bathed his burning brow in the keen morning air, which brought to his senses the scent of the trees, and the perfume of the flowers. A splendid dawn was gilding the horizon, and the first rays of the sun bathed in flame the young king's brow. "This is the dawn of my reign," murmured Louis XIV. "It's a presage sent by the Almighty."
In the morning, the news of the death of the cardinal was spread through the castle, and thence speedily reached the city. The ministers Fouquet, Lyonne, and Letellier entered la salle des seances, to hold a council. The king sent for them immediately. "Messieurs," said he, "as long as monsieur le cardinal lived, I allowed him to govern my affairs; but now I mean to govern them myself. You will give me your advice when I ask it. You may go."
The ministers looked at each other with surprise. If they concealed a smile it was with a great effort, for they knew that the prince, brought up in absolute ignorance of business, by this took upon himself a burden much too heavy for his strength. Fouquet took leave of his colleagues upon the stairs, saying:--"Messieurs! there will be so much the less labor for us."
And he gayly climbed into his carriage. The others, a little uneasy at the turn things had taken, went back to Paris together. Towards ten o'clock the king repaired to the apartment of his mother, with whom he had a long and private conversation. After dinner, he got into his carriage, and went straight to the Louvre. There he received much company, and took a degree of pleasure in remarking the hesitation of each, and the curiosity of all. Towards evening he ordered the doors of the Louvre to be closed, with the exception of only one, which opened on the quay. He placed on duty at this point two hundred Swiss, who did not speak a word of French, with orders to admit all who carried packages, but no others; and by no means to allow any one to go out. At eleven o'clock precisely, he heard the rolling of a heavy carriage under the arch, then of another, then of a third; after which the gate grated upon its hinges to be closed. Soon after, somebody scratched with his nail at the door of the cabinet. The king opened it himself, and beheld Colbert, whose first word was this:--"The money is in your majesty's cellar."
The king then descended and went himself to see the barrels of specie, in gold and silver, which, under the direction of Colbert, four men had just rolled into a cellar of which the king had given Colbert the key in the morning. This review completed, Louis returned to his apartments, followed by Colbert, who had not apparently warmed with one ray of personal satisfaction.
"Monsieur," said the king, "what do you wish that I should give you, as a recompense for this devotedness and probity?"
"Absolutely nothing, sire."
"How! nothing? Not even an opportunity of serving me?"
"If your majesty were not to furnish me with that opportunity, I should not the less serve you. It is impossible for me not to be the best servant of the king."
"You shall be intendant of the finances, M. Colbert."
"But there is already a superintendent, sire."
"I know that."
"Sire, the superintendent of the finances is the most powerful man in the kingdom."
"Ah!" cried Louis, coloring, "do you think so?"
"He will crush me in a week, sire. Your majesty gives me a controle for which strength is indispensable. An intendant under a superintendent,--that is inferiority."
"You want support--you do not reckon upon me?"
"I had the honor of telling your majesty, that during the lifetime of M. de Mazarin, M. Fouquet was the second man in the kingdom; now M. de Mazarin is dead, M. Fouquet is become the first."
"Monsieur, I agree to what you told me of all things up to to-day; but to-morrow, please to remember, I shall no longer suffer it."
"Then I shall be of no use to your majesty?"
"You are already, since you fear to compromise yourself in serving me."
"I only fear to be placed so that I cannot serve your majesty."
"What do you wish, then?"
"I wish your majesty to allow me assistance in the labors of the office of intendant."
"That post would lose its value."
"It would gain in security."
"Choose your colleagues."
"Messieurs Breteuil, Marin, Hervart."
"To-morrow the ordonnance shall appear."
"Sire, I thank you."
"Is that all you ask?"
"No, sire, one thing more."
"What is that?"
"Allow me to compose a chamber of justice."
"What would this chamber of justice do?"
"Try the farmers-general and contractors, who, during ten years, have been robbing the state."
"Well, but what would you do with them?"
"Hang two or three, and that would make the rest disgorge."
"I cannot commence my reign with executions, Monsieur Colbert."
"On the contrary, sire, you had better, in order not to have to end with them."
The king made no reply. "Does your majesty consent?" said Colbert.
"I will reflect upon it, monsieur."
"It will be too late when reflection may be made."
"Why?"
"Because you have to deal with people stronger than ourselves, if they are warned."
"Compose that chamber of justice, monsieur."
"I will, sire."
"Is that all?"
"No, sire; there is still another important affair. What rights does your majesty attach to this office of intendant?"
"Well--I do not know--the customary ones."
"Sire, I desire that this office be invested with the right of reading the correspondence with England."
"Impossible, monsieur, for that correspondence is kept from the council; monsieur le cardinal himself carried it on."
"I thought your majesty had this morning declared that there should no longer be a council?"
"Yes, I said so."
"Let your majesty then have the goodness to read all the letters yourself, particularly those from England; I hold strongly to this article."
"Monsieur, you shall have that correspondence, and render me an account of
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