The Man Who Outshone The Sun King

<p>*In 1664, the musketeer D'Artagnan rode beside a heavily-armoured carriage as it rumbled slowly southwards from Paris, carrying his great friend Nicolas Foucquet to internal exile and life imprisonment in the fortress of Pignerol. There he would be <b>incarcerated in a cell next door to the Man with the Iron Mask...<br></b><br>*From a glittering zenith as the King's first minister, builder of the breathtaking chateau of Vaux-le-Vicomte, collector of books, patron of the arts and lover of beautiful women, <b>Foucquet had fallen like Icarus.</b> Charged with embezzlement, he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.<br><br>*Charles Drazin's riveting account brings to life the <b>rich, hazardous and machiavellian world</b> in which Foucquet lived. His charm, cunning and charisma enchanted and beguiled those around him, but in them lay the seeds of his destruction.</p>