"Well! what ?" said Anne of Austria.
"What is all that noise ?" said Philippe, turning round towards the door of the second staircase.
And a voice was heard saying, "This way, this way! A few steps more, sire!" "The voice of M.Fouquet," said D'Artagnan, who was standing close to the queen-mother.
"Then M.d'Herblay cannot be far off," added Philippe.
But he then saw what he little thought to have beheld so near to him.
All eyes were turned towards the door at which M.Fouquet was expected to enter; but it was not M.Fouquet who entered.

A terrible cry resounded from all corners of the chamber, a painful cry uttered by the king and all present.

It is given to but few men, even those whose destiny contains the strangest elements, and accidents the most wonderful, to contemplate such a spectacle similar to that which presented itself in the royal chamber at that moment.

The half-closed shutters only admitted the entrance of an uncertain light passing through thick violet velvet curtains lined with silk.

In this soft shade, the eyes were by degrees dilated, and every one present saw others rather with imagination than with actual sight.