Fouquet raised his head, and a flash seemed to. strike his eyes.
"Are you sure of what you say?" cried he.
"Here is the proof, monseigneur."
And Gourville held out to the surintendant a note communicated by one of the secretaries of the Hotel de Ville, who was one of Fouquet's creatures.
"Yes, that is true," murmured the minister; "the scaffold may be prepared, but the king has not signed; Gourville, the king will not sign."
"I will soon know," said Gourville.
"How?"
"If the king has signed, the gibbets will be sent this evening to the Hotel de Ville, in order to be got up and ready by to-morrow morning."
"Oh, no, no!" cried the surintendant, once again; "you are all deceived, and deceive me in my turn. Lyodot came to see me only the day before yesterday; only three days ago I received a present of some Syracuse wine from poor D'Eymeris."
"What does that prove?" replied Gourville, "except that the chamber of justice has been secretly assembled, has deliberated in the absence of the accused, and that the whole proceeding was complete when they were arrested."
"What! are they, then, arrested?"
"No doubt they are."
"But where, when, how have they been arrested?"
"Lyodot, yesterday at daybreak; D'Eymeris, the day before yesterday, in the evening, as he was returning from the house of his mistress; their disappearance had disturbed nobody; but at length Monsieur Colbert all at once raised the mask, and caused the affair to be published; it is being cried by sound of trumpet, at this moment, in Paris, and, in truth, monseigneur, there is scarcely anybody but yourself ignorant of the event."
Fouquet began to walk about his chamber with an uneasiness that became more and more serious.
"What do you decide upon, monseigneur?" said Gourville.
"If it really were as you say, I would go to the king," cried Fouquet. "But as I go to the Louvre, I will pass by the Hotel de Ville. We shall see if the sentence is signed."
"Incredulity, thou art the pest of all great minds!" said Gourville, shrugging his shoulders.
"Gourville!"
