“I mean that your note—will you let me see your note, if you please?”
“Very willingly; here it is.”
Colbert seized the paper with an eagerness which the musketeer did not remark without uneasiness, and particularly without a certain degree of regret at having trusted him with it. “Well, monsieur, the royal order says this:—‘At sight, I command that there be paid to M. d’Artagnan the sum of five thousand livres, forming a quarter of the pension I have made him.’”
“So, in fact, it is written,” said D’Artagnan, affecting calmness.
“Very well; the king only owed you five thousand livres; why has more been given to you?”
“Because there was more; and M. Fouquet was willing to give me more; that does not concern anybody.”
“It is natural,” said Colbert, with a proud ease, “that you should be ignorant of the usages of state-finance; but, monsieur, when you have a thousand livres to pay, what do you do?”
“I never have a thousand livres to pay,” replied D’Artagnan.
“Once more,” said Colbert, irritated—“once more, if you had any sum to pay, would you not pay what you ought?”
“That only proves one thing,” said D’Artagnan; “and that is, that you have your particular customs in finance, and M. Fouquet has his own.”