Chapter 27

Chapter XXVII:
Showing How Louis, on His Part, Had Passed the Time from Ten to Half-Past
Twelve at Night.

When the king left the apartments of the maids of honor, he found Colbert
awaiting him to take directions for the next day's ceremony, as the king
was then to receive the Dutch and Spanish ambassadors. Louis XIV. had
serious causes of dissatisfaction with the Dutch; the States had already
been guilty of many mean shifts and evasions with France, and without
perceiving or without caring about the chances of a rupture, they again
abandoned the alliance with his Most Christian Majesty, for the purpose
of entering into all kinds of plots with Spain. Louis XIV. at his
accession, that is to say, at the death of Cardinal Mazarin, had found
this political question roughly sketched out; the solution was difficult
for a young man, but as, at that time, the king represented the whole
nation, anything that the head resolved upon, the body would be found
ready to carry out. Any sudden impulse of anger, the reaction of young
hot blood upon the brain, would be quite sufficient to change an old form
of policy and create another system altogether. The part that
diplomatists had to play in those days was that of arranging among
themselves the different _coups-d'etat_ which their sovereign masters
might wish to effect. Louis was not in that calm frame of mind which was
necessary to enable him to determine on a wise course of policy. Still
much agitated from the quarrel he had just had with La Valliere, he
walked hastily into his cabinet, dimly desirous of finding an opportunity
of producing an explosion after he had controlled himself for so long a
time. Colbert, as he saw the king enter, knew the position of affairs at
a glance, understood the king's intentions, and resolved therefore to
maneuver a little. When Louis requested to be informed what it would be
necessary to say on the morrow, Colbert began by expressing his surprise
that his majesty had not been properly informed by M. Fouquet. "M.
Fouquet," he said, "is perfectly acquainted with the whole of this Dutch
affair - he received the dispatches himself direct."

The king, who was accustomed to hear M. Colbert speak in not over-
scrupulous terms of M. Fouquet, allowed this remark to pass unanswered,
and merely listened. Colbert noticed the effect it had produced, and
hastened to back out, saying that M. Fouquet was not on all occasions as
blamable as at the first glance might seem to be the case, inasmuch as at
that moment he was greatly occupied. The king looked up. "What do you
allude to?" he said.

"Sire, men are but men, and M. Fouquet has his defects as well as his
great qualities."

"Ah! defects, who is without them, M. Colbert?"