“Indeed! under what pretext?”
“Oh! pretexts are never wanting with her. Let me tell you what it is: it seems that the duchesse has a good many letters of M. de Mazarin’s in her possession.”
“I am not surprised at that, for the prelate was gallant enough.”
“Yes, but these letters have nothing whatever to do with the prelate’s love affairs. They concern, it is said, financial matters rather.”
“And accordingly they are less interesting.”
“Do you not suspect what I mean?”
“Not at all.”
“Have you never heard speak of a prosecution being instituted for an embezzlement, or appropriation rather, of public funds?”
“Yes, a hundred, nay, a thousand times. Ever since I have been engaged in public matters I have hardly heard of anything else. It is precisely your own case, when, as a bishop, people reproach you for impiety; or, as a musketeer, for your cowardice; the very thing of which they are always accusing ministers of finance is the embezzlement of public funds.”
“Very good; but take a particular instance, for the duchesse asserts that M. de Mazarin alludes to certain particular instances.”