“A young man who is anxious for my death——”
“My lord!”
“To inherit, yes, Colbert, yes; he is anxious for my death in order to inherit. Triple fool that I am! I would prevent him!”
“Exactly: if the donation were made in a certain form he would refuse it.”
“Well, but how?”
“That is plain enough. A young man who has yet done nothing—who burns to distinguish himself—who burns to reign alone, will never take anything ready built, he will construct for himself. This prince, monseigneur, will never be content with the Palais Royal, which M. de Richelieu left him, nor with the Palais Mazarin, which you have had so superbly constructed, nor with the Louvre, which his ancestors inhabited; nor with St. Germain, where he was born. All that does not proceed from himself, I predict, he will disdain.”
“And you will guarantee, that if I give my forty millions to the king——”
“Saying certain things to him at the same time, I guarantee he will refuse them.”
“But those things—what are they?”
“I will write them, if my lord will have the goodness to dictate them.”