el ascending the topmost branches of a tree, with the motto
"_quo non ascendam_."

Neither the king nor his fair companion understood Latin. Just then
the king's secretary, M. Colbert, entered. He hated Fouquet. He had
already detected the minister in many falsifications of the treasury
accounts, and had explained the robbery to the king. Louis had been
for some time contemplating the arrest of Fouquet, but hardly dared,
as yet, to strike one so powerful.

As M. Colbert entered, Louise inquired of him the significance of the
motto.

"It signifies," he replied, "_to what height may I not attain_, and
this significance is well understood by those who know the boldness of
the squirrel or that of his master."

Just at that moment another courtier came up, who remarked, "Your
majesty has probably not observed that in every instance the squirrel
is pursued by a serpent."

The king turned pale with anger, and ordered the captain of his
musketeers to attend him. Louise understood full well what this meant.
She threw herself at his feet, and entreated him not to sully his
reputation by arresting a man whose guest he was, and who was
entertaining him and his court with the highest honors. With the
greatest difficulty, the king was dissuaded from immediate action. For
a time he smothered his vengeance, and the court returned to
Fontainebleau.

The king's displeasure not only remained unabated, but increased with
added evidence of the pride, display, and fraudulent transactions of
his minister. At length he ordered him to be secretly arrested,
conveyed in close confinement to Angers, while a seal was placed on
all his property. But for the interposition of the kind-hearted
Louise, the degraded minister would have lost his life. It was easy
for the king, immersed in pleasure, to forget the miserable. M.
Fouquet was left in his imprisonment, almost as entirely lost to the
world as if he had been consigned to the _oubliettes_ of the Bastile.

Soon after this, the 1st of November, 1661, Maria Theresa gave birth
to a dauphin. Louis was greatly elated. Still, the pride which he
took in the child as the heir to the throne did not secure for his
neglected wife any more tenderness of regard. He treated her with
great courtesy, while his affections were vibrating between Henrietta
and Louise. Every thing seemed to combine to magnify the power of the
king. Still, the pleasure-loving monarch, while apparently wholly
resigning himself