ve formed a solid alliance, that is, you and I, and that I
am absolutely at your service."

"It is I, madame, who place myself at yours. This Chevalier d'Herblay is
a kind of Spanish spy, is he not?"

"Much more."

"A secret ambassador?"

"Higher still."

"Stop--King Phillip III. of Spain is a bigot. He is, perhaps, the
confessor of Phillip III."

"You must go higher even than that."

"_Mordieu!_" cried Colbert, who forgot himself so far as to swear in the
presence of this great lady, of this old friend of the queen-mother. "He
must then be the general of the Jesuits."

"I believe you have guessed it at last," replied the duchesse.

"Ah! then, madame, this man will ruin us all if we do not ruin him; and
we must make haste, too."

"Such was my opinion, monsieur, but I did not dare to give it you."

"And it was lucky for us he has attacked the throne, and not us."

"But, mark this well, M. Colbert. M. d'Herblay is never discouraged; if
he has missed one blow, he will be sure to make another; he will begin
again. If he has allowed an opportunity to escape of making a king for
himself, sooner or later, he will make another, of whom, to a certainty,
you will not be prime minister."

Colbert knitted his brow with a menacing expression. "I feel assured
that a prison will settle this affair for us, madame, in a manner
satisfactory for both."

The duchesse smiled again.

"Oh! if you knew," said she, "how many times Aramis has got out of
prison!"

"Oh!" replied Colbert, "we will take care that he shall not get out
_this_ time."

"But you were not attending to what I said to you just now. Do you
remember that Aramis was one of the four invincibles whom Richelieu so
dreaded? And at that period the four musketeers were not in possession
of that which they have now--money and experience."

Colbert bit his lips.

"We will renounce the idea of the prison," said he, in a lower tone:
"we will find a little retreat from which the invincible cannot possibly
escape."

"That was well spoken, our ally!" replied the duchesse. "But it is
getting late; had we not better return?"

"The more willingly, madame, from my having my preparations to make for
setting out with the king."

"To Paris!" cried the duchesse to the coachman.

And the carriage returned towards the Faubourg Saint Antoine, after the
conclusion of the treaty that gave to death the last friend of Fouquet,
the last defender of Belle-Isle, the former fr