man; and when you occupy Monsieur de Treville's place, I will come and
ask your influence to secure me an abbey."

"Well, I am in a maze," said Porthos; "do YOU approve of what d'Artagnan
has done?"

"PARBLEU! Indeed I do," said Athos; "I not only approve of what he has
done, but I congratulate him upon it."

"And now, gentlemen," said d'Artagnan, without stopping to explain his
conduct to Porthos, "All for one, one for all--that is our motto, is it
not?"

"And yet--" said Porthos.

"Hold out your hand and swear!" cried Athos and Aramis at once.

Overcome by example, grumbling to himself, nevertheless, Porthos
stretched out his hand, and the four friends repeated with one voice the
formula dictated by d'Artagnan:

"All for one, one for all."

"That's well! Now let us everyone retire to his own home," said
d'Artagnan, as if he had done nothing but command all his life; "and
attention! For from this moment we are at feud with the cardinal."

10 A MOUSETRAP IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

The invention of the mousetrap does not date from our days; as soon
as societies, in forming, had invented any kind of police, that police
invented mousetraps.

As perhaps our readers are not familiar with the slang of the Rue de
Jerusalem, and as it is fifteen years since we applied this word for
the first time to this thing, allow us to explain to them what is a
mousetrap.

When in a house, of whatever kind it may be, an individual suspected of
any crime is arrested, the arrest is held secret. Four or five men are
placed in ambuscade in the first room. The door is opened to all who
knock. It is closed after them, and they are arrested; so that at
the end of two or three days they have in their power almost all the
HABITUES of the establishment. And that is a mousetrap.

The apartment of M. Bonacieux, then, became a mousetrap; and whoever
appeared there was taken and interrogated by the cardinal's people. It
must be observed that as a separate passage led to the first floor, in
which d'Artagnan lodged, those who called on him were exempted from this
detention.

Besides, nobody came thither but the three Musketeers; they had all been
engaged in earnest search and inquiries, but had discovered nothing.
Athos had even gone so far as to question M. de Treville--a thing which,
considering the habitual reticence of the worthy Musketeer, had very
much astonished his captain. But M. de Treville knew nothing, except
that th