Ten Years Later: Louise de la Valliere by Alexandre Dumas Chapter 40 Page 39

“that you really draw back from a miserable sum of five hundred thousand francs, when it is a question of sparing you — I mean your friend — I beg your pardon, I ought rather to say your protector — the disagreeable consequences which a party contest produces?”

“Duchesse, I tell you why; supposing the five hundred thousand francs were to be given you, M. Laicques will require his share, which will be another five hundred thousand francs, I presume? and then, after M. de Laicques’s and your own portions have been arranged, the portions which your children, your poor pensioners, and various other persons will require, will start up as fresh claims, and these letters, however compromising they may be in their nature, are not worth from three to four millions.