er--now the Abbe--d'Herblay, is up to the ears in intrigues
of every description. Athos, Count de la Fere, has abandoned the
wine-flask, formerly the deity of his adoration, and is busied in the
education of a natural son, a youth of sixteen, of whom the beautiful
Duchess of Chevreuse is the mother. By the promise of a barony,
D'Artagnan easily induces Porthos to follow him to Paris; but with his
other two friends he is less successful. Athos and Aramis put him off
with excuses, for both have already pledged themselves to the cause of
the Fronde and of the Duke of Beaufort.

This prince, the grandson of Henry the Fourth, and of the celebrated
Gabrielle D'Estrees, is a prisoner in the fortress of Vincennes, and a
constant subject of uneasiness to Mazarine. Brave as steel, but of
limited capacity, the idol of the people, who, by the use of his name,
are easily roused to rebellion, the duke has beguiled his long
captivity by abuse of the Facchino Mazarini, as he styles the
cardinal, and by keeping up a constant petty warfare with the governor
of Vincennes, Monsieur de Chavigny. On his way to prison, he boasted
to his guards that he had at least forty plans of escape, some one of
which would infallibly succeed. This was repeated to the cardinal; and
so well is the duke guarded in consequence, that five years have
elapsed and he is still at Vincennes. At last his friends find means
of communicating with him, and Grimaud, the servant of the Count de la
Fere, is introduced, in the capacity of an under jailer, into the
fortress, where, by his taciturnity and apparent strictness, he gains
the entire confidence of La Ramee, an official who, under M. de
Chavigny, is appointed to the especial guardianship of the Duke of
Beaufort. An attempt to escape is fixed for the day of the Pentecost.
Upon the morning of that day, Monsieur de Chavigny starts upon a short
journey, leaving the castle in charge of La Ramee, whom the duke
invites to sup with him upon a famous pasty, that has been ordered for
the occasion from a confectioner who has recently established himself
at Vincennes. Here is what takes place at the repast.

La Ramee, who, at the bottom of his heart, entertained a considerable
degree of regard and affection for M. de Beaufort, made himself a
great treat of this tete-a-tete supper. His chief foible was gluttony,
and for this grand occasion the confectioner had promised to outdo
himself. The pasty was to be of pheasants, the w