Have you written that, Bernouin ?" "Yes, monseigneur." "Bourse, six hundred thousand livres; various property, two millions.
Ah! I forgot--the furniture of the different chateaux----" "Must I put of the crown ?" asked Bernouin.
"No, no, it is of no use doing that--that is understood.

Have you written that, Bernouin ?" "Yes, monseigneur." "And the ciphers ?" "Stand straight under one another." "Cast them up, Bernouin." "Thirty-nine millions two hundred and sixty thousand livres, monseigneur." "Ah!" cried the cardinal, in a tone of vexation; "there are not yet forty millions!" Bernouin recommenced the addition.
"No, monseigneur; there want seven hundred and forty thousand livres." Mazarin asked for the account, and revised it carefully.
"Yes, but," said Bernouin, "thirty-nine millions two hundred and sixty thousand livres make a good round sum." "Ah, Bernouin, I wish the king had it." "Your eminence told me that this money was his majesty's." "Doubtless, as clear, as transparent as possible.

These thirty-nine millions are bespoken, and much more." Bernouin smiled after his own fashion--that is, like a man who believes no more than he is willing to believe--whilst preparing the cardinal's night draught, and putting his pillow to rights.
"Oh!" said Mazarin, when the valet had gone out; "not yet forty millions! I must, however, attain that sum, which I had set down for myself.

But who knows whether I shall have time?
I sink, I am going, I shall never reach it! And yet, who knows that I may not find two or three millions in the pockets of my good friends the Spaniards?
They discovered Peru, those people did, and--what the devil! they must have something left." As he was speaking thus, entirely occupied with his ciphers, and thinking no more of his gout, repelled by a preoccupation which, with the cardinal, was the most powerful of all preoccupations, Bernouin rushed into the chamber, quite in a fright.
"Well!" asked the cardinal, "what is the matter now ?" "The king, monseigneur,--the king!" "How ?--the king!" said Mazarin, quickly concealing his paper.

"The king here! the king at this hour! I thought he was in bed long ago.