"that a
great king, feared throughout Europe, cannot finish a case against one of
his own subjects." "I am sorry," answered the old gentleman, "that the
king is not satisfied with my son's conduct; I know that he practises
what I have always taught him,--to fear God, serve the king, and render
justice without respect of persons. The delay in the matter does not
depend upon him; he works at it night and day, without wasting a moment."
Oliver d'Ormesson lost the stewardship of Soissonness, to which he had
the titular right, but he did not allow himself to be diverted from his
scrupulous integrity. Nay, he grew wroth at the continual attacks of
Chancellor Seguier, more of a courtier than ever in his old age, and
anxious to finish the matter to the satisfaction of the court. "I told
many of the Chamber," he writes, "that I did not like to have the whip
applied to me every morning, and that the chancellor was a sort of
chastiser I would not put up with." [_Journal d' Oliver d' Ormesson,_
t. ii. p. 88.]

Fouquet, who claimed the jurisdiction of the Parliament, had at first
refused to answer the interrogatory; it was determined to conduct his
case "as if he were dumb," but his friends had him advised not to persist
in his silence. The courage and presence of mind of the accused more
than once embarrassed his judges. The ridiculous scheme which had been
discovered behind a looking-glass in Fouquet's country-house was read;
the instructions given to his friends in case of his arrest seemed to
foreshadow a rebellion; Fouquet listened, with his eyes bent upon the
crucifix. "You cannot be ignorant that this is a state-crime," said the
chancellor. "I confess that it is outrageous, sir," replied the accused;
"but it is not a state-crime. I entreat these gentlemen," turning to the
judges, "to kindly allow me to explain what a state-crime is. It is when
you hold a chief office, when you are in the secrets of your prince, and
when, all at once, you range yourself on the side of his enemies, enlist
all your family in the same interest, cause the passes to be given up by
your son-in-law, and the gates to be opened to a foreign army, so as to
introduce it into the heart of the kingdom. That, gentlemen, is what is
called a state-crime." The chancellor could not protest; nobody had
forgotten his conduct during the Fronde. M. d'Ormesson summed up for
banishment, and confiscation of all the property of the accused; it was
all t