he risks we are
running."

"They would be immense, infinite, terrific, insurmountable, if, as I
have said, all things did not concur in rendering them of absolutely no
account. There is no danger either for you or for me, if the constancy
and intrepidity of your royal highness are equal to that perfection of
resemblance to your brother which nature has bestowed upon you. I repeat
it, there are no dangers, only obstacles; a word, indeed, which I find
in all languages, but have always ill-understood, and, were I king,
would have obliterated as useless and absurd."

"Yes, indeed, monsieur; there is a very serious obstacle, an
insurmountable danger, which you are forgetting."

"Ah!" said Aramis.

"There is conscience, which cries aloud; remorse, which never dies."

"True, true," said the bishop; "there is a weakness of heart of which
you remind me. You are right, too, for that indeed is an immense
obstacle. The horse afraid of the ditch leaps into the middle of it, and
is killed! The man who tremblingly crosses his sword with that of
another leaves loopholes, whereby his enemy has him in his power."

"Have you a brother?" said the young man to Aramis.

"I am alone in the world," said the latter, with, a hard, dry voice.

"But, surely, there is some one in the world whom you love;" added
Philippe.

"No one!--Yes, I love you."

The young man sunk into so profound a silence that the mere sound of his
respiration seemed like a roaring tumult for Aramis. "Monseigneur" he
resumed, "I have not said all I have to say to your royal highness; I
have not offered you all the salutary counsels and useful resources
which I have at my disposal. It is useless to flash bright visions
before the eyes of one who seeks and loves darkness; useless, too, is it
to let the magnificence of the cannon's roar be heard in the ears of one
who loves repose and the quiet of the country. Monseigneur, I have your
happiness spread out before me in my thoughts; listen to my words;
precious they indeed are, in their import and their sense, for you who
look with such tender regard upon the bright heavens, the verdant
meadows, the pure air. I know a country instinct with delights of every
kind, an unknown paradise, a secluded corner of the world--where alone,
unfettered and unknown, in the thick covert of the woods, amid flowers,
and streams of rippling water, you will forget all the misery that human
folly has so recently allotted you. Oh! listen t