to control M.
Fouquet, was it? And the result of the examination?"

"Is that there is a deficit, sire; but if your majesty will permit
me----"

"Speak, M. Colbert."

"I ought to give your majesty some explanations."

"Not at all, monsieur, it is you who have controlled these accounts,
give me the result."

"That is very easily done, sire; emptiness everywhere, money nowhere."

"Beware, monsieur; you are roughly attacking the administration of M.
Fouquet, who, nevertheless, I have heard say, is an able man."

Colbert colored, and then became pale, for he felt that from that minute
he entered upon a struggle with a man whose power almost equaled the
sway of him who had just died. "Yes, sire, a very able man," repeated
Colbert, bowing.

"But if M. Fouquet is an able man, and, in spite of that ability, if
money be wanting, whose fault is it?"

"I do not accuse, sire, I verify."

"That is well; make out your accounts, and present them to me. There is
a deficit, you say? A deficit may be temporary; credit returns and funds
are restored."

"No, sire."

"Upon this year, perhaps, I understand that; but upon next year?"

"Next year is eaten as bare as the current year."

"But the year after, then?"

"Will be just like next year."

"What do you tell me, Monsieur Colbert?"

"I say there are four years engaged beforehand.

"They must have a loan, then."

"They must have three, sire."

"I will create offices to make them resign, and the salary of the posts
shall be paid into the treasury."

"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. 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 today, 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