"What has he done?" asked Anne of Austria.
"I have excellent reasons, my mother; besides, Fouquet may escape to Belle Isle—here I have him, I hold him!" and Louis, in his seat, shook his fist in his mother's face.
"You are strangely moved, Louis. I do not know your reasons, but I advise you, for the sake of your own dignity, to choose a more suitable moment than during a fête at which you are present in his own house."
"Every time is good to catch a traitor."
"Yes; but, my son, there is such a thing as decorum. The Superintendent has given you a superb fête, which you have accepted. You are under his roof; you cannot arrest him while you are his guest. It is out of the question."
"But, my mother, I have reasons of state."
"Then they must wait. What would the Court—what would France—say to such an act? Take care, my son, that those who may never know your justification do not condemn your act. Even you are not above public opinion."
Louis did not reply, but the Queen-mother perceived that her words had convinced him.
The Court returned to Fontainebleau in the same order as it came.