Chapter XIX.

The Shadow of M.Fouquet.
D'Artagnan, still confused and oppressed by the conversation he had just had with the king, could not resist asking himself if he were really in possession of his senses, if he were really and truly at Vaux; if he, D'Artagnan, were really the captain of the musketeers, and M.Fouquet the owner of the chateau in which Louis XIV.

was at that moment partaking of his hospitality.

These reflections were not those of a drunken man, although everything was in prodigal profusion at Vaux, and the surintendant's wines had met with a distinguished reception at the _fete_.

The Gascon, however, was a man of calm self-possession; and no sooner did he touch his bright steel blade, than he knew how to adopt morally the cold, keen weapon as his guide of action.
"Well," he said, as he quitted the royal apartment, "I seem now to be mixed up historically with the destinies of the king and of the minister; it will be written, that M.d'Artagnan, a younger son of a Gascon family, placed his hand on the shoulder of M.Nicolas Fouquet, the surintendant of the finances of France.