“Yes; and the result is, then, that M.

Fouquet has not yet restored the thirteen millions.”

“That results from the accounts, certainly, sire.”

“Well, and, consequently — ”

“Well, sire, in that case, inasmuch as M. Fouquet has not yet given back the thirteen millions, he must have appropriated them to his own purpose; and with those thirteen millions one could incur four times and a little more as much expense, and make four times as great a display, as your majesty was able to do at Fontainebleau, where we only spent three millions altogether, if you remember.”

For a blunderer, the souvenir he had evoked was a rather skillfully