“Exactly, M. Colbert. Peste! you reckon like old Pythagoras; yes, twenty thousand livres.”
“Ten times the appointment of an intendant of the finances. I beg to offer you my compliments,” said Colbert, with a vicious smile.
“Oh!” said D’Artagnan, “the king apologized for giving me so little; but he promised to make it more hereafter, when he should be rich; but I must be gone, having much to do—”
“So, then, notwithstanding the expectation of the king, the superintendent paid you, did he?”
“In the same manner, as, in opposition to the king’s expectation, you refused to pay me.”
“I did not refuse, monsieur, I only begged you to wait. And you say that M. Fouquet paid you your five thousand livres?”
“Yes, as you might have done; but he did even better than that, M. Colbert.”
“And what did he do?”
“He politely counted me down the sum-total, saying, that for the king, his coffers were always full.”
“The sum-total! M. Fouquet has given you twenty thousand livres instead of five thousand?”