At the end of the passage ascended a winding staircase parallel with that by which Fouquet had entered.He mounted these other stairs, entered by means of a spring placed in a closet similar to that in his cabinet, and from this closet an untenanted chamber furnished with the utmost elegance.As soon as he entered, he examined carefully whether the glass closed without leaving any trace, and, doubtless satisfied with his observation, he opened by means of a small gold key the triple fastenings of a door in front of him.This time the door opened upon a handsome cabinet sumptuously furnished, in which was seated upon cushions a lady of surpassing beauty, who at the sound of the lock sprang towards Fouquet."Ah! good heavens!" cried the latter, starting back with astonishment."Madame la Marquise de Belliere, you here?""Yes," murmured la marquise."Yes; it is I, monsieur.""Marquise! dear marquise!" added Fouquet, ready to prostrate himself."Ah! my God! how did you come here? And I, to keep you waiting!""A long time, monsieur; yes, a very long time!""I am happy in thinking this waiting has appeared long to you, marquise!""Oh! an eternity, monsieur; oh! I rang more than twenty times.Did you not hear me?""Marquise, you are pale, you tremble."
"Did you not hear, then, that you were summoned?""Oh, yes; I heard plainly enough, madame; but I could not come.After your rigors and your refusals, how could I dream it was you? If I could have had any suspicion of the happiness that awaited me, believe me, madame, I would have quitted everything to fall at your feet, as I do at this moment.""Are we quite alone, monsieur?" asked the marquise, looking round the room.
"Oh, yes, madame, I can assure you of that.""Really?" said the marquise, in a melancholy tone.
"You sigh!" said Fouquet.
"What mysteries! what precautions!" said the marquise, with a slight bitterness of expression; "and how evident it is that you fear the least suspicion of your amours to escape.""Would you prefer their being made public?""Oh, no; you act like a delicate man," said the marquise, smiling.
"Come, dear marquise, punish me not with reproaches, Iimplore you."
"Reproaches! Have I a right to make you any?""No, unfortunately, no; but tell me, you, who during a year I have loved without return or hope ---- ""You are mistaken -- without hope it is true, but not without return.""What! for me, of my love! there is but one proof, and that proof I still want.""I am here to bring it, monsieur."
Fouquet wished to clasp her in his arms, but she disengaged herself with a gesture.
"You persist in deceiving yourself, monsieur, and never will accept of me the only thing I am willing to give you --devotion."
"Ah, then, you do not love me? Devotion is but a virtue, love is a passion.""Listen to me, I implore you: I should not have come hither without a serious motive: you are well assured of that, are you not?""The motive is of very little consequence, so that you are but here -- so that I see you -- so that I speak to you!""You are right; the principal thing is that I am here without any one having seen me, and that I can speak to you." -- Fouquet sank on his knees before her."Speak!
speak, madame!" said he, "I listen to you."The marquise looked at Fouquet, on his knees at her feet, and there was in the looks of the woman a strange mixture of love and melancholy."Oh!" at length murmured she, "would that I were she who has the right of seeing you every minute, of speaking to you every instant! would that I were she who might watch over you, she who would have no need of mysterious springs, to summon and cause to appear, like a sylph, the man she loves, to look at him for an hour, and then see him disappear in the darkness of a mystery, still more strange at his going out than at his coming in.Oh!
that would be to live a happy woman!"
"Do you happen, marquise," said Fouquet, smiling, "to be speaking of my wife?""Yes, certainly, of her I spoke."
"Well, you need not envy her lot, marquise; of all the women with whom I have any relations, Madame Fouquet is the one Isee the least of, and who has the least intercourse with me.""At least, monsieur, she is not reduced to place, as I have done, her hand upon the ornament of a glass to call you to her; at least you do not reply to her by the mysterious, alarming sound of a bell, the spring of which comes from Idon't know where; at least you have not forbidden her to endeavor to discover the secret of these communications under pain of breaking off forever your connections with her, as you have forbidden all who have come here before me, and all who will come after me.""Dear marquise, how unjust you are, and how little do you know what you are doing in thus exclaiming against mystery;it is with mystery alone we can love without trouble; it is with love without trouble alone that we can be happy.But let us return to ourselves, to that devotion of which you were speaking, or rather let me labor under a pleasing delusion, and believe that this devotion is love.""Just now," repeated the marquise, passing over her eyes a hand that might have been a model for the graceful contours of antiquity; "just now I was prepared to speak, my ideas were clear and bold, now I am quite confused, quite troubled; I fear I bring you bad news.""If it is to that bad news I owe your presence, marquise, welcome be even that bad news! or rather, marquise, since you allow that I am not quite indifferent to you, let me hear nothing of the bad news, but speak of yourself.""No, no, on the contrary, demand it of me; require me to tell it to you instantly, and not to allow myself to be turned aside by any feeling whatever.Fouquet, my friend! it is of immense importance!""You astonish me, marquise; I will even say you almost frighten me.You, so serious, so collected; you who know the world we live in so well.Is it, then important?""Oh! very important."