.

"It is not Madame Bonacieux about whom I am anxious," cried d'Artagnan,
"but the queen, whom the king abandons, whom the cardinal persecutes,
and who sees the heads of all her friends fall, one after the other."

"Why does she love what we hate most in the world, the Spaniards and the
English?"

"Spain is her country," replied d'Artagnan; "and it is very natural that
she should love the Spanish, who are the children of the same soil as
herself. As to the second reproach, I have heard it said that she does
not love the English, but an Englishman."

"Well, and by my faith," said Athos, "it must be acknowledged that this
Englishman is worthy of being loved. I never saw a man with a nobler air
than his."

"Without reckoning that he dresses as nobody else can," said Porthos. "I
was at the Louvre on the day when he scattered his pearls; and, PARDIEU,
I picked up two that I sold for ten pistoles each. Do you know him,
Aramis?"

"As well as you do, gentlemen; for I was among those who seized him in
the garden at Amiens, into which Monsieur Putange, the queen's equerry,
introduced me. I was at school at the time, and the adventure appeared
to me to be cruel for the king."

"Which would not prevent me," said d'Artagnan, "if I knew where the Duke
of Buckingham was, from taking him by the hand and conducting him to the
queen, were it only to enrage the cardinal, and if we could find means
to play him a sharp turn, I vow that I would voluntarily risk my head in
doing it."

"And did the mercer*," rejoined Athos, "tell you, d'Artagnan, that the
queen thought that Buckingham had been brought over by a forged letter?"

*Haberdasher

"She is afraid so."

"Wait a minute, then," said Aramis.

"What for?" demanded Porthos.

"Go on, while I endeavor to recall circumstances."

"And now I am convinced," said d'Artagnan, "that this abduction of the
queen's woman is connected with the events of which we are speaking, and
perhaps with the presence of Buckingham in Paris."

"The Gascon is full of ideas," said Porthos, with admiration.

"I like to hear him talk," said Athos; "his dialect amuses me."

"Gentlemen," cried Aramis, "listen to this."

"Listen to Aramis," said his three friends.

"Yesterday I was at the house of a doctor of theology, whom I sometimes
consult about my studies."

Athos smiled.

"He resides in a quiet quarter," continued Aramis; "his tastes and his
profession require it. Now, at the moment when