"Game for a woman!" said she, "and the queen is a woman. If she wishes to have M. d'Herblay arrested, she has her reasons for it. Besides, is not M. d'Herblay the friend of him who is destined to fall?"
"Oh! never mind that," said Colbert. "This man shall be spared, if he is not the enemy of the king. Is that displeasing to you?"
"I say nothing."
"Yes—you wish to see him in prison, in the Bastille for instance."
"I believe a secret better concealed behind the walls of the Bastille than behind those of Belle-Isle."
"I will speak to the king about it; he will clear up the point."
"And while wailing for that enlightenment, Monsieur l'Eveque de Vannes will have escaped. I would do so."
"Escaped! he! and whither would he escape? Europe is ours, in will, if not in fact."
"He will always find an asylum, monsieur. It is evident you know nothing of the man you have to do with. You do not know D'Herblay; you did not know Aramis. He was one of those four musketeers who, under the late king, made Cardinal de Richelieu tremble, and who, during the regency, gave so much trouble to Monseigneur Mazarin."
"But, madame, what can he do, unless he has a kingdom to back him?"