an.

She was taken out to the river bank, and beheaded, and her body dropped
into the middle of the stream.

"Let the justice of Heaven be done!" they cried in a loud voice.

Within three days the musketeers were back in Paris, ready to return
with the king to La Rochelle. Then the cardinal summoned D'Artagnan to
his presence.

"You are charged with having corresponded with the enemies of France,
with having surprised state secrets, and with having attempted to thwart
the plans of your general," said the cardinal.

"The woman who charges me--a branded felon--Milady de Winter, is dead,"
replied D'Artagnan.

"Dead!" exclaimed the cardinal. "Dead!"

"We have tried her and condemned her," said D'Artagnan. Then he told the
cardinal of the poisoning of Madame Bonacieux, and of the subsequent
trial and execution.

The cardinal shuddered before he answered quietly, "You will be tried
and condemned."

"Monseigneur," said D'Artagnan, "though I have the pardon in my pocket I
am willing to die."

"What pardon?" said the cardinal, in astonishment. "From the king?"

"No, a pardon signed by your eminence." D'Artagnan produced the precious
paper which Athos had forced Milady to give him before her journey to
England.

For a time the cardinal sat looking at the paper before him. Then he
slowly tore it up.

"Now I am lost." thought D'Artagnan. "But he shall see how a gentleman
can die."

The cardinal went to a table, and wrote a few lines on a parchment.

"Here, monsieur," he said; "I have taken away from you one paper; I give
you another. Only the name is wanting in this commission, and you must
fill that up."

D'Artagnan took the document with hesitation. He looked at it, saw it
was a lieutenant's commission in the musketeers, and fell at the
cardinal's feet.

"Monseigneur, my life is yours. Dispose of it as you will. But I do not
deserve this. I have three friends, all more worthy----"

The cardinal interrupted him.

"You are a brave young man, D'Artagnan. Fill up this commission as you
will."

D'Artagnan sought out his friends, and offered the commission to them in
turn.

But each declined, and Athos filled in the name of D'Artagnan on the
commission.

"I shall soon have no more friends. Nothing but bitter recollections!"
said D'Artagnan, thinking of Madame Bonacieux.

"You are young yet," Athos answered. "In time these bitter recollections
will give way to sweet remembrances."

* *