"You're a wizard."
"Not in the slightest degree."
"How do you know it, then?"
"By a very simple means. I heard M. Fouquet himself say so to the king."
"Say what to the king?"
"That he had fortified Belle-Isle on his majesty's account, and that he made him a present of Belle-Isle."
"And you heard M. Fouquet say that to the king?"
"In those very words. He even added:
"'Belle-Isle has been fortified by an engineer, one of my friends, a man of a great deal of merit, whom I shall ask your majesty's permission to present to you.'
"'What is his name?' said the king.