Abbe Fouquet

Also known as: monsieur l’abbe / the abbe · Family: Fouquet's circle · Role: churchman and soldier · First appears: Chapter 55

Abbe Fouquet, a churchman and soldier in Fouquet’s circle, was reconciled with his sibling Fouquet in chapter 55, when they became friends again: “Then we are friends?” said the abbe, with a bow. “Oh, yes, friends.” Fouquet agreed to fund his expenses and retain his armed men, including the provincial recruit Menneville, whom the abbe liked, while he also had three hundred pistoles due to M. de Bregi.

In chapter 57, Abbe Fouquet mentioned that D’Eymeris owed him eleven hundred livres from a game of brelan. He kept La Fontaine from following two speakers, allowing the poet to seize upon him and recite his verses, while Fouquet instructed him to watch the gallery and give warning by coughing. In chapter 59, Fouquet ordered Pelisson to bring him to Saint-Mande; by chapter 60, at Vincennes and the Place de Greve, he was organizing 120 men and agreeing to rescue Lyodot and D’Eymeris from execution.

At the Place Baudoyer, Abbe Fouquet and Fouquet established a route through a cabaret and garden for the prisoners’ escape, with Fouquet assigning one hundred thousand livres to the operation. Abbe Fouquet then devised a riot in which his men would pretend to attack the prisoners and force them from the gibbets, while he and Gourville appeared among the three men “united by one single thought of violence.”