The First Appearance of Colbert
The whole night was passed in anguish, common to the dying man and to
the king: the dying man expected his deliverance, the king awaited his
liberty. Louis did not go to bed. An hour after leaving the chamber of
the cardinal, he learned that the dying man, recovering a little
strength, had insisted upon being dressed, adorned and painted, and
seeing the ambassadors. Like Augustus, he no doubt considered the world
a great stage, and was desirous of playing out the last act of the
comedy. Anne of Austria reappeared no more in the cardinal’s
apartments; she had nothing more to do there. Propriety was the pretext
for her absence. On his part, the cardinal did not ask for her: the
advice the queen had given her son rankled in his heart.
Towards midnight, while still painted, Mazarin’s mortal agony came on.
He had revised his will, and as this will was the exact expression of
his wishes, and as he feared that some interested influence might take
advantage of his weakness to make him change something in it, he had
given orders to Colbert, who walked up and down the corridor which led
to the cardinal’s bed-chamber, like the most vigilant of sentinels. The
king, shut up in his own apartment, dispatched his nurse every hour to
Mazarin’s chamber, with orders to bring him back the exact bulletin of
the cardinal’s state. After having heard that Mazarin was dressed,
painted, and had seen the ambassadors, Louis heard that the prayers for
the dying were being read for the cardinal. At one o’clock in the
morning, Guenaud had administered the last remedy. This was a relic of
the old customs of that fencing time, which was about to disappear to
give place to another time, to believe that death could be kept off by
some good secret thrust. Mazarin, after having taken the remedy,
respired freely for nearly ten minutes. He immediately gave orders that
the news should be spread everywhere of a fortunate crisis. The king,
on learning this, felt as if a cold sweat were passing over his
brow;—he had had a glimpse of the light of liberty; slavery appeared to
him more dark and less acceptable than ever. But the bulletin which
followed entirely changed the face of things. Mazarin could no longer
breathe at all, and could scarcely follow the prayers which the cure of
Saint-Nicholas-des-Champs recited near him. The king resumed his
agitated walk about his chamber, and consulted, as he walked, several
papers drawn from a casket of which he alone had the key. A third time
the nurse returned. M. de Mazarin had just uttered a joke, and had
ordered his “Flora,” by Titian, to be revarnished. At length, towards
two o’clock in the morning, the king could no longer resist his
weariness: he had not slept for twenty-four hours. Sleep, so powerful
at his age, overcame him for about an hour. But he did not go to bed
for that hour, he slept in a fauteuil. About four o’clock his nurse
awoke him by entering the room.
“Well?” asked the king.
“Well, my dear sire,” said the nurse, clasping her hands with an air of
commiseration. “Well, he is dead!”
The king arose at a bound, as if a steel spring had been applied to his
legs. “Dead!” cried he.
“Alas! yes.”
“Is it quite certain?”
“Yes.”
“Official?”
“Yes.”
“Has the news been made public?”
“Not yet.”
“Who told you, then, that the cardinal was dead?”
“M. Colbert.”
“M. Colbert?”
“Yes.”
“And was he sure of what he said?”
“He came out of the chamber, and had held a glass for some minutes
before the cardinal’s lips.”
“Ah!” said the king. “And what is become of M. Colbert?”
“He has just left his eminence’s chamber.”
“Where is he?”
“He followed me.”
“So that he is——”
“Sire, waiting at your door, till it shall be your good pleasure to
receive him.”
Louis ran to the door, opened it himself, and perceived Colbert
standing waiting in the passage. The king started at sight of this
statue, all clothed in black. Colbert, bowing with profound respect,
advanced two steps towards his majesty. Louis re-entered his chamber,
making Colbert a sign to follow. Colbert entered; Louis dismissed the
nurse, who closed the door as she went out. Colbert remained modestly
standing near that door.
“What do you come to announce to me, monsieur?” said Louis, very much
troubled at being thus surprised in his private thoughts, which he
could not completely conceal.
“That monsieur le cardinal has just expired, sire; and that I bring
your majesty his last adieu.”
The king remained pensive for a minute; and during that minute he
looked attentively at Colbert;—it was evident that the cardinal’s last
words were in his mind. “Are you, then, M. Colbert?” asked he.
“Yes, sire.”
“His faithful servant, as his eminence himself told me?”
“Yes, sire.”
“The depositary of many of his secrets?”
“Of all of them.”
“The friends and servants of his eminence will be dear to me, monsieur,
and I shall take care that you are well placed in my employment.”
Colbert bowed.
“You are a financier, monsieur, I believe?”
“Yes, sire.”
“And did monsieur le cardinal employ you in his stewardship?”
“I had that honor, sire.”
“You never did anything personally for my household, I believe?”
“Pardon me, sire, it was I who had the honor of giving monsieur le
cardinal the idea of an economy which puts three hundred thousand
francs a year into your majesty’s coffers.”
“What economy was that, monsieur?” asked Louis XIV.
“Your majesty knows that the hundred Swiss have silver lace on each
side of their ribbons?”
“Doubtless.”
“Well, sire, it was I who proposed that imitation silver lace should be
placed upon these ribbons, it could not be detected, and a hundred
thousand crowns serve to feed a regiment during six months; and is the
price of ten thousand good muskets or the value of a vessel of ten
guns, ready for sea.”
“That is true,” said Louis XIV., considering more attentively, “and, ma
foi! that was a well placed economy; besides, it was ridiculous for
soldiers to wear the same lace as noblemen.”
“I am happy to be approved of by your majesty.”
“Is that the only appointment you held about the cardinal?” asked the
king.
“It was I who was appointed to examine the accounts of the
superintendent, sire.”
“Ah!” said Louis, who was about to dismiss Colbert, but whom that word
stopped; “ah! it was you whom his eminence had charged to control M.
Fouquet, was it? And the result of the examination?”
“Is that there is a deficit, sire; but if your majesty will permit
me——”
“Speak, M. Colbert.”
“I ought to give your majesty some explanations.”
“Not at all, monsieur, it is you who have controlled these accounts,
give me the result.”
“That is very easily done, sire; emptiness everywhere, money nowhere.”
“Beware, monsieur; you are roughly attacking the administration of M.
Fouquet, who, nevertheless, I have heard say, is an able man.”
Colbert colored, and then became pale, for he felt that from that
minute he entered upon a struggle with a man whose power almost equaled
the sway of him who had just died. “Yes, sire, a very able man,”
repeated Colbert, bowing.
“But if M. Fouquet is an able man, and, in spite of that ability, if
money be wanting, whose fault is it?”
“I do not accuse, sire, I verify.”
“That is well; make out your accounts, and present them to me. There is
a deficit, you say? A deficit may be temporary; credit returns and
funds are restored.”
“No, sire.”
“Upon this year, perhaps, I understand that; but upon next year?”
“Next year is eaten as bare as the current year.”
“But the year after, then?”
“Will be just like next year.”
“What do you tell me, Monsieur Colbert?”
“I say there are four years engaged beforehand.
“They must have a loan, then.”
“They must have three, sire.”
“I will create offices to make them resign, and the salary of the posts
shall be paid into the treasury.”
“Impossible, sire, for there have already been creations upon creations
of offices, the provisions of which are given in blank, so that the
purchasers enjoy them without filling them. That is why your majesty
cannot make them resign. Further, upon each agreement M. Fouquet has
made an abatement of a third, so that the people have been plundered,
without your majesty profiting by it. Let your majesty set down clearly
your thought, and tell me what you wish me to explain.”
“You are right, clearness is what you wish, is it not?”
“Yes, sire, clearness. God is God above all things, because He made
light.”
“Well, for example,” resumed Louis XIV., “if today, the cardinal being
dead, and I being king, suppose I wanted money?”
“Your majesty would not have any.”
“Oh! that is strange, monsieur! How! my superintendent would not find
me any money?”
Colbert shook his large head.
“How is that?” said the king, “is the income of the state so much in
debt that there is no longer any revenue?”
“Yes, sire.”
The king started. “Explain me that, M. Colbert,” added he with a frown.
“If it be so, I will get together the ordonnances to obtain a discharge
from the holders, a liquidation at a cheap rate.”
“Impossible, for the ordonnances have been converted into bills, which
bills, for the convenience of return and facility of transaction, are
divided into so many parts that the originals can no longer be
recognized.”
Louis, very much agitated, walked about, still frowning. “But, if this
is as you say, Monsieur Colbert,” said he, stopping all at once, “I
shall be ruined before I begin to reign.”
“You are, in fact, sire,” said the impassible caster-up of figures.
“Well, but yet, monsieur, the money is somewhere?”
“Yes, sire, and even as a beginning, I bring your majesty a note of
funds which M. le Cardinal Mazarin was not willing to set down in his
testament, neither in any act whatever, but which he confided to me.”
“To you?”
“Yes, sire, with an injunction to remit it to your majesty.”
“What! besides the forty millions of the testament?”
“Yes, sire.”
“M. de Mazarin had still other funds?”
Colbert bowed.
“Why, that man was a gulf!” murmured the king. “M. de Mazarin on one
side, M. Fouquet on the other,—more than a hundred millions perhaps
between them! No wonder my coffers should be empty!” Colbert waited
without stirring.
“And is the sum you bring me worth the trouble?” asked the king.
“Yes, sire, it is a round sum.”
“Amounting to how much?”
“To thirteen millions of livres, sire.”
“Thirteen millions!” cried Louis, trembling with joy: “do you say
thirteen millions, Monsieur Colbert?”
“I said thirteen millions, yes, your majesty.”
“Of which everybody is ignorant?”
“Of which everybody is ignorant.”
“Which are in your hands?”
“In my hands, yes, sire.”
“And which I can have?”
“Within two hours, sire.”
“But where are they, then?”
“In the cellar of a house which the cardinal possessed in the city, and
which he was so kind as to leave me by a particular clause of his
will.”
“You are acquainted with the cardinal’s will, then?”
“I have a duplicate of it, signed by his hand.”
“A duplicate?”
“Yes, sire, and here it is.” Colbert drew the deed quietly from his
pocket and showed it to the king. The king read the article relative to
the donation of the house.
“But,” said he, “there is no question here but of the house; there is
nothing said of the money.”
“Your pardon, sire, it is in my conscience.”
“And Monsieur Mazarin has intrusted it to you?”
“Why not, sire?”
“He! a man mistrustful of everybody?”
“He was not so of me, sire, as your majesty may perceive.”
Louis fixed his eyes with admiration upon that vulgar but expressive
face. “You are an honest man, M. Colbert,” said the king.
“That is not a virtue, it is a duty,” replied Colbert, coolly.
“But,” added Louis, “does not the money belong to the family?”
“If this money belonged to the family it would be disposed of in the
testament, as the rest of his fortune is. If this money belonged to the
family, I, who drew up the deed of donation in favor of your majesty,
should have added the sum of thirteen millions to that of forty
millions which was offered to you.”
“How!” exclaimed Louis XIV., “was it you who drew up the deed of
donation?”
“Yes, sire.”
“And yet the cardinal was attached to you?” added the king ingenuously.
“I had assured his eminence you would by no means accept the gift,”
said Colbert in that same quiet manner we have described, and which,
even in the common habits of life, had something solemn in it.
Louis passed his hand over his brow. “Oh! how young I am,” murmured he,
“to have the command of men.”
Colbert waited the end of this monologue. He saw Louis raise his head.
“At what hour shall I send the money to your majesty?” asked he.
“To-night, at eleven o’clock; I desire that no one may know that I
possess this money.”
Colbert made no more reply than if the thing had not been said to him.
“Is the amount in ingots, or coined gold?”
“In coined gold, sire.”
“That is well.”
“Where shall I send it?”
“To the Louvre. Thank you, M. Colbert.”
Colbert bowed and retired. “Thirteen millions!” exclaimed Louis, as
soon as he was alone. “This must be a dream!” Then he allowed his head
to sink between his hands, as if he were really asleep. But at the end
of a moment he arose, and opening the window violently he bathed his
burning brow in the keen morning air, which brought to his senses the
scent of the trees, and the perfume of flowers. A splendid dawn was
gilding the horizon, and the first rays of the sun bathed in flame the
young king’s brow. “This is the dawn of my reign,” murmured Louis XIV.
“It’s a presage sent by the Almighty.”