His brow was streaming with perspiration, and he was really suffering from his fever at that instant.

He passed into his cabinet, to receive the king's message.

There prevailed, as we have said, such a silence in the chambers, and throughout the attendance, that from the dining-room could be heard the voice of Fouquet, saying, "That is well, monsieur." This voice was, however, broken by fatigue, and trembled with emotion.

An instant after, Fouquet called Gourville, who crossed the gallery amidst the universal expectation.

At length, he himself re-appeared among his guests; but it was no longer the same pale, spiritless countenance they had beheld when he left them; from pale he had become livid; and from spiritless, annihilated.