g crowd,--"and yet, reflect a little, my good people, on what
your king has done, on what M. Monk has done, and then think what has
been done by this poor unknown, who is called M. d'Artagnan! It is true
you do not know him, since he is here unknown, and that prevents your
thinking about the matter! But, bah! what matters it! All that does not
prevent Charles II. from being a great king, although he has been exiled
twelve years, or M. Monk from being a great captain, although he did
make a voyage to Holland in a box. Well, then, since it is admitted that
one is a great king and the other a great captain,--'Hurrah for King
Charles II.!--Hurrah for General Monk!'" And his voice mingled with
the voices of the hundreds of spectators, over which it sounded for a
moment. Then, the better to play the devoted man, he took off his hat
and waved it in the air. Some one seized his arm in the very height of
his expansive royalism. (In 1660 that was so termed which we now call
royalism.)

"Athos!" cried D'Artagnan, "you here!" And the two friends seized each
other's hands.

"You here!--and being here," continued the musketeer, "you are not in
the midst of all these courtiers my dear comte! What! you, the hero of
the fete, you are not prancing on the left hand of the king, as M. Monk
is prancing on the right? In truth, I cannot comprehend your character,
nor that of the prince who owes you so much!"

"Always scornful, my dear D'Artagnan!" said Athos. "Will you never
correct yourself of that vile habit?"

"But, you do not form part of the pageant?"

"I do not, because I was not willing to do so."

"And why were you not willing?"

"Because I am neither envoy nor ambassador, nor representative of the
king of France; and it does not become me to exhibit myself thus near
the person of another king than the one God has given me for a master."

"Mordioux! you came very near to the person of the king, his father."

"That was another thing, my friend; he was about to die."

"And yet that which you did for him----"

"I did it because it was my duty to do it. But you know I hate all
ostentation. Let King Charles II., then, who no longer stands in need of
me, leave me to my rest, and in the shadow; that is all I claim of him."

D'Artagnan sighed.

"What is the matter with you?" said Athos. "One would say that this
happy return of the king to London saddens you, my friend; you who have
done at least as much for his majesty as I hav