“What! are they, then, arrested?”

“No doubt they are.”

“But where, when, and how have they been arrested?”

“Lyodot, yesterday at daybreak; D’Eymeris, the day before yesterday, in the evening, as he was returning from the house of his mistress; their disappearances had disturbed nobody; but at length M. Colbert all at once raised the mask, and caused the affair to be published; it is being cried by sound of trumpet, at this moment in Paris, and, in truth, monseigneur, there is scarcely anybody but yourself ignorant of the event.”

Fouquet began to walk about in his chamber with an uneasiness that became more and more serious.

“What do you decide upon, monseigneur?”