"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 his 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 the 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 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."