,"
interrupted Aramis. "For my part, I think what they say is very well
said, and quite worthy of two gentlemen."

"When you please, monsieur," said Athos, putting himself on guard.

"I waited your orders," said d'Artagnan, crossing swords.

But scarcely had the two rapiers clashed, when a company of the Guards
of his Eminence, commanded by M. de Jussac, turned the corner of the
convent.

"The cardinal's Guards!" cried Aramis and Porthos at the same time.
"Sheathe your swords, gentlemen, sheathe your swords!"

But it was too late. The two combatants had been seen in a position
which left no doubt of their intentions.

"Halloo!" cried Jussac, advancing toward them and making a sign to his
men to do so likewise, "halloo, Musketeers? Fighting here, are you? And
the edicts? What is become of them?"

"You are very generous, gentlemen of the Guards," said Athos, full of
rancor, for Jussac was one of the aggressors of the preceding day. "If
we were to see you fighting, I can assure you that we would make no
effort to prevent you. Leave us alone, then, and you will enjoy a little
amusement without cost to yourselves."

"Gentlemen," said Jussac, "it is with great regret that I pronounce the
thing impossible. Duty before everything. Sheathe, then, if you please,
and follow us."

"Monsieur," said Aramis, parodying Jussac, "it would afford us great
pleasure to obey your polite invitation if it depended upon ourselves;
but unfortunately the thing is impossible--Monsieur de Treville has
forbidden it. Pass on your way, then; it is the best thing to do."

This raillery exasperated Jussac. "We will charge upon you, then," said
he, "if you disobey."

"There are five of them," said Athos, half aloud, "and we are but three;
we shall be beaten again, and must die on the spot, for, on my part,
I declare I will never appear again before the captain as a conquered
man."

Athos, Porthos, and Aramis instantly drew near one another, while Jussac
drew up his soldiers.

This short interval was sufficient to determine d'Artagnan on the part
he was to take. It was one of those events which decide the life of a
man; it was a choice between the king and the cardinal--the choice made,
it must be persisted in. To fight, that was to disobey the law, that was
to risk his head, that was to make at one blow an enemy of a minister
more powerful than the king himself. All this young man perceived, and
yet, to his praise we speak it, he did not