present
from the king--as a keepsake; so the cardinal despatched a certain lady,
a woman of rare beauty, known as "Milady," to England, to get hold of
two of these studs.

Then the cardinal, by fostering the royal suspicion, persuaded the king
to give a grand ball whereat the queen should wear the diamond studs. By
this means Louis would be convinced of Buckingham's visit, for the set
of studs would be incomplete.

The queen was in dispair. It was D'Artagnan and the three musketeers
who saved her honour. D'Artagnan loved Madame Bonacieux, a confidential
dressmaker of the queen's; and this woman, devoted to her royal
mistress, gave D'Artagnan a secret note from the queen to Buckingham.

D'Artagnan went at once to M. de Treville, obtained leave of absence for
himself and his friends, and set out for England. It was not a minute
too soon, for the cardinal had already made plans to prevent any such
counter-move, giving orders that no one was to sail from France without
a permit.

Between Paris and Calais, Porthos, Aramis, and Athos were all left
behind, wounded by Richelieu's guards, and D'Artagnan only effected a
passage to Dover by fighting and nearly killing a young noble who held a
permit from the cardinal to leave France.

Once in England, D'Artagnan hastened to find Buckingham. The latter
discovered, to his horror, that Milady had already become possessed
cunningly of two of the precious studs, and D'Artagnan had to wait while
the skill of the first English jeweller made good the loss beyond
detection.

He returned to Paris with the twelve studs in time for the royal ball.
Milady had already given the two she had stolen to the cardinal, who had
passed them on to the king.

"What does this mean, Monsieur le Cardinal?" said the king severely,
when in the middle of the ball he found, to his joy, that the queen was
already wearing twelve diamonds.

"It means, sire," the cardinal replied, with vexation, "that I was
anxious to present her majesty with two studs, but did not dare to offer
them myself."

"I am very grateful," said Anne of Austria, fully alive to the
cardinal's defeat, "only I am afraid these two studs must have cost your
eminence as much as all the others cost his majesty."

The man, D'Artagnan, to whom the queen owed this extraordinary triumph
over her enemy, stood unknown in the crowd that gathered round the
doors. It was only when the queen retired that someone touched him on
the shoulder and