round him on the place and making signs to several persons, who disappeared in the adjacent streets, after having themselves repeated the signals.

Fouquet was made to wait for a moment on the terrace of which we have spoken, — a terrace which abutted on the little corridor, at the end of which the cabinet of the king was located. Here D’Artagnan passed on before the surintendant, whom, till that time, he had respectfully accompanied, and entered the royal cabinet.

“Well?” asked Louis XIV., who, on perceiving him, threw on to the table covered with papers a large green cloth.

“The order is executed, sire.”

“And Fouquet?”

“Monsieur le surintendant follows me,”