Fouquet, however, was not certain of the cardinal's good faith; he bought Belle-Ile to secure for himself a retreat, and prepared, for his personal defence, a mad project which was destined subsequently to be his ruin.

From the commencement of his reign, the counsels of Mazarin on his death-bed, the suggestions of Colbert, the first observations made by the king himself, irrevocably ruined Fouquet in the mind of the young monarch.

Whilst the superintendent was dreaming of the ministry and his friends calling him _the Future,_ when he was preparing, in his castle of Vaux-le-Vicomte, an entertainment in the king's honor at a cost of forty thousand crowns, Louis XIV., in concert with Colbert, had resolved upon his ruin.

The form of trial was decided upon.

The king did not want to have any trouble with the Parliament; and Colbert suggested to Fouquet the idea of ridding himself of his office of attorney-general.