“For that it is necessary you should go to the Louvre, is it not?”
“Gourville!”
“Beware! once at the Louvre, you will be forced to defend your friends openly, that is to say, to make a profession of faith; or you will be forced to abandon them irrevocably.”
“Never!”
“Pardon me,—the king will propose the alternative to you, rigorously, or else you will propose it to him yourself.”
“That is true.”
“That is the reason why conflict must be avoided. Let us return to Saint-Mande, monseigneur.”
“Gourville, I will not stir from this place, where the crime is to be carried out, where my disgrace is to be accomplished; I will not stir, I say, till I have found some means of combating my enemies.”
“Monseigneur,” replied Gourville, “you would excite my pity, if I did not know you for one of the great spirits of this world. You possess a hundred and fifty millions, you are equal to the king in position, and a hundred and fifty millions his superior in money. M. Colbert has not even had the wit to have the will of Mazarin accepted. Now, when a man is the richest person in a kingdom, and will take the trouble to spend the money, if things are done he does not like it is because he is a poor man. Let us return to Saint-Mande, I say.”
“To consult with Pellisson?—we will.”