That situation was not very encouraging for Fouquet, whatever might be his consciousness of strength.

The small black eye of Colbert, dilated by envy, and the limpid eye of Louis XIV.

inflamed by anger, signalled some pressing danger.

Courtiers are, with regard to court rumors, like old soldiers, who distinguish through the blasts of wind and bluster of leaves the sound of the distant steps of an armed troop.
They can, after having listened, tell pretty nearly how many men are marching, how many arms resound, how many cannons roll.

Fouquet had then only to interrogate the silence which his arrival had produced; he found it big with menacing revelations.