"Dumas, Alexandre - The Man In The Iron Mask" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dumas Alexandre)

Chevreuse, coldly. "I do not live at such a distance from Paris as not
to know what takes place there. The King does not like M. Fouquet, and
he would willingly sacrifice the superintendent if an opportunity were
only presented."
"It must be a good one, though."
"Good enough, and one I estimate to be worth five hundred thousand
livres."
"In what way?" said Colbert.
"I mean, Monsieur, that holding this opportunity in my own hands I
will not allow it to be transferred to yours except for a sum of
five hundred thousand livres."
"I understand you perfectly, Madame. But since you have fixed a
price for the sale, let me now see the value of the articles to be
sold."
"Oh, a mere trifle,- six letters, as I have already told you, from
M. de Mazarin; and the autographs will most assuredly not be
regarded as too costly, if they establish in an irrefutable manner
that M. Fouquet has embezzled large sums of money from the treasury
and appropriated them to his own purposes."
"In an irrefutable manner, do you say?" observed Colbert, whose eyes
sparkled with delight.
"Irrefutable; would you like to read the letters?"
"With all my heart! Copies, of course?"
"Of course, the copies," said the duchess, as she drew from her
bosom a small packet of papers flattened by her velvet bodice. "Read!"
she said.
Colbert eagerly snatched the papers and devoured them.
"Wonderful!" he said.
"It is clear enough, is it not?"
"Yes, Madame, yes. M. Mazarin must have handed the money to M.
Fouquet, who must have kept it for his own purposes; but the
question is, what money?"
"Exactly,- what money; if we come to terms, I will join to these six
letters a seventh, which will supply you with the fullest
particulars."
Colbert reflected. "And the originals of these letters?"
"A useless question to ask; exactly as if I were to ask you, M.
Colbert, whether the money-bags you will give me will be full or
empty."
"Very good, Madame."
"Is it concluded?"
"No; for there is one circumstance to which neither of us has
given any attention."
"Name it!"
"M. Fouquet can be utterly ruined, under the circumstances you
have detailed, only by means of legal proceedings."
"Well?"
"A public scandal."
"Yes, what then?"
"Neither the legal proceedings nor the scandal can be begun