Fouquet is being politically devoured by Louis XIV, and Aramis has just handed him the king's ruin on a platter. Fouquet's answer: “C’était mon hôte, c’était mon roi!” — “Vous avez affaire à un honnête homme.” He throws away his own sword rather than fight a priest, then gives Aramis four hours' head start out of that same hospitality. Honor, for Fouquet, isn't a strategy — it's an identity that holds even when it destroys him.

— In our words · Source: The Man in the Iron Mask (Alexandre Dumas)