"Is it not all the same?"
"No, on the contrary, it is quite different."
"I do not understand you."
"You will do so shortly then. Suppose, for instance, the king in question were to be a very different person to Louis XIV."
"Another person?"
"Yes, who is indebted for everything to you."
"Impossible!"
"His very throne even."
"You are mad, D'Herblay! There is no man living besides Louis XIV. who can sit on the throne of France. I see none, not one."
"Unless it be Monsieur," said Fouquet, looking at Aramis uneasily, "yet Monsieur—"