TEN TEARS LATER. 483 "All." "Intimidation, even?" "I constitute you public prosecutor in my place." They waited ten minutes longer, but uselessly, and Fou- quet, thoroughly out of patience, again rang loudly. "Toby!" he exclaimed. "Monseigneur," said the valet, "they are looking for him." "He cannot be far distant; I have not given him any commission to execute." "I will go and see, monseigneur," replied the valet, as he closed the door. Aramis, during this interview, walked impatiently up and down the cabinet. Again they waited another ten minutes. Fouquet rang in a manner to awaken the very dead. The valet again presented himself, trem- bling in a way to induce a belief that he was the bearer of bad news. "Monseigneur is mistaken," he said, before even iouquet could interrogate him, "you must have given Toby some commission, for he has been to the stables and taken your lordship's swiftest horse and saddled it himself." "Well?" "And he has gone off." "Gone!" exclaimed Fouquet. "Let him be pursued, let him be captured." "Nay, nay," said Aramis, taking him by the hand, be calm, the evil is done now." ^ "The evil is done, you say?" "No doubt; I was sure of it. And now, let us give no cause for suspicion; we must calculate the result of the blow and ward it off, if possible." "After all," said Fouquet, "the evil is not great." "You think so?" said Aramis. "Of course. Surely a man is allowed to write a love letter to a woman." "A man, certainly; a subject, no; especially, too, when the woman in question is one with whom the king is in love." "But the king was not in love with La Valliere a week ago, he was not in love with her yesterday, and the letter is dated yesterday; I could not guess the king was in love, when the king's affection was not even yet in existence." "As you please," replied Aramis; 'but unfortunately the letter is not dated, and it is that circumstance particu- larly which annoys me. If it had only been dated yester-
