ams, and
even entertain great fear of them; but of yours it may be said, I hope,
every dream is an illusion. Adieu! Take care of yourself, and act so
that we may from time to time hear you spoken of.

"Marie Michon"

"And what dream does she mean?" asked the dragoon, who had approached
during the reading.

"Yez; what's the dream?" said the Swiss.

"Well, pardieu!" said Aramis, "it was only this: I had a dream, and I
related it to her."

"Yez, yez," said the Swiss; "it's simple enough to dell a dream, but I
neffer dream."

"You are very fortunate," said Athos, rising; "I wish I could say as
much!"

"Neffer," replied the Swiss, enchanted that a man like Athos could envy
him anything. "Neffer, neffer!"

D'Artagnan, seeing Athos rise, did likewise, took his arm, and went out.

Porthos and Aramis remained behind to encounter the jokes of the dragoon
and the Swiss.

As to Bazin, he went and lay down on a truss of straw; and as he had
more imagination than the Swiss, he dreamed that Aramis, having become
pope, adorned his head with a cardinal's hat.

But, as we have said, Bazin had not, by his fortunate return, removed
more than a part of the uneasiness which weighed upon the four friends.
The days of expectation are long, and d'Artagnan, in particular,
would have wagered that the days were forty-four hours. He forgot the
necessary slowness of navigation; he exaggerated to himself the power
of Milady. He credited this woman, who appeared to him the equal of a
demon, with agents as supernatural as herself; at the least noise,
he imagined himself about to be arrested, and that Planchet was being
brought back to be confronted with himself and his friends. Still
further, his confidence in the worthy Picard, at one time so great,
diminished day by day. This anxiety became so great that it even
extended to Aramis and Porthos. Athos alone remained unmoved, as if no
danger hovered over him, and as if he breathed his customary atmosphere.

On the sixteenth day, in particular, these signs were so strong in
d'Artagnan and his two friends that they could not remain quiet in one
place, and wandered about like ghosts on the road by which Planchet was
expected.

"Really," said Athos to them, "you are not men but children, to let
a woman terrify you so! And what does it amount to, after all? To be
imprisoned. Well, but we should be taken out of prison; Madame Bonacieux
was released. To be decapitated? Why, every day in the