Chapter XXII.

Showing How the Countersign Was Respected at the Bastile.
Fouquet tore along as fast as his horses could drag him.

On his way he trembled with horror at the idea of what had just been revealed to him.
"What must have been," he thought, "the youth of those extraordinary men, who, even as age is stealing fast upon them, are still able to conceive such gigantic plans, and carry them through without a tremor ?" At one moment he could not resist the idea that all Aramis had just been recounting to him was nothing more than a dream, and whether the fable itself was not the snare; so that when Fouquet arrived at the Bastile, he might possibly find an order of arrest, which would send him to join the dethroned king.

Strongly impressed with this idea, he gave certain sealed orders on his route, while fresh horses were being harnessed to his carriage.

These orders were addressed to M.d'Artagnan and to certain others whose fidelity to the king was far above suspicion.
"In this way," said Fouquet to himself, "prisoner or not, I shall have performed the duty that I owe my honor.