ich
by the manner of his gait can do at least five leagues an hour."

D'Artagnan and Athos laughed aloud.

"My dear d'Artagnan," said Aramis, "don't be too angry with me, I
beg. Necessity has no law; besides, I am the person punished, as that
rascally horsedealer has robbed me of fifty louis, at least. Ah, you
fellows are good managers! You ride on our lackey's horses, and have
your own gallant steeds led along carefully by hand, at short stages."

At the same instant a market cart, which some minutes before had
appeared upon the Amiens road, pulled up at the inn, and Planchet and
Grimaud came out of it with the saddles on their heads. The cart was
returning empty to Paris, and the two lackeys had agreed, for their
transport, to slake the wagoner's thirst along the route.

"What is this?" said Aramis, on seeing them arrive. "Nothing but
saddles?"

"Now do you understand?" said Athos.

"My friends, that's exactly like me! I retained my harness by instinct.
HOLA, Bazin! Bring my new saddle and carry it along with those of these
gentlemen."

"And what have you done with your ecclesiastics?" asked d'Artagnan.

"My dear fellow, I invited them to a dinner the next day," replied
Aramis. "They have some capital wine here--please to observe that in
passing. I did my best to make them drunk. Then the curate forbade me
to quit my uniform, and the Jesuit entreated me to get him made a
Musketeer."

"Without a thesis?" cried d'Artagnan, "without a thesis? I demand the
suppression of the thesis."

"Since then," continued Aramis, "I have lived very agreeably. I have
begun a poem in verses of one syllable. That is rather difficult,
but the merit in all things consists in the difficulty. The matter is
gallant. I will read you the first canto. It has four hundred lines, and
lasts a minute."

"My faith, my dear Aramis," said d'Artagnan, who detested verses almost
as much as he did Latin, "add to the merit of the difficulty that of the
brevity, and you are sure that your poem will at least have two merits."

"You will see," continued Aramis, "that it breathes irreproachable
passion. And so, my friends, we return to Paris? Bravo! I am ready. We
are going to rejoin that good fellow, Porthos. So much the better. You
can't think how I have missed him, the great simpleton. To see him so
self-satisfied reconciles me with myself. He would not sell his horse;
not for a kingdom! I think I can see him now, mounted upon his superb
anim