you know I am not rich.”

“No, no; but the order is — and if you had been the general — ”

“You know I am not the general, I think.”

“In that case, you have a friend who must be very wealthy — M. Fouquet.”

“M. Fouquet! He is more than half ruined, madame.”

“So it is said, but I did not believe it.”

“Why, duchesse?”

“Because I have, or rather Laicques has, certain letters in his possession from Cardinal Mazarin, which establish the existence of very strange accounts.”

“What accounts?”