et?" inquired the king, greatly astonished at
his situation.

"It matters very little to whom we belong," said the phantom; "we are
your masters now, that is sufficient."

The king, more impatient than intimidated, turned to the other masked
figure. "If this is a comedy," he said, "you will tell M. Fouquet that I
find it unseemly and improper, and that I desire it should cease."

The second masked person to whom the king had addressed himself was a
man of huge stature and vast circumference. He held himself erect and
motionless as a block of marble. "Well!" added the king, stamping his
foot, "you do not answer!"

"We do not answer you, my good monsieur," said the giant in a stentorian
voice, "because there is nothing to answer."

"At least, tell me what you want?" exclaimed Louis, folding his arms
with a passionate gesture.

"You will know by-and-by," replied the man who held the lamp.

"In the meantime tell me where I am?"

"Look."

Louis looked all round him; but by the light of the lamp which the
masked figure raised for the purpose, he could perceive nothing but the
damp walls which glistened here and there with the slimy traces of the
snail. "Oh! oh! a dungeon," said the king.

"No, a subterranean passage."

"Which leads--?"

"Will you be good enough to follow us."

"I shall not stir from hence!" cried the king.

"If you are obstinate, my dear young friend," replied the taller and
stouter of the two, "I will lift you up in my arms, will roll you up in
a cloak, and if you are stifled there, why so much the worse for you."

And as he said this, he disengaged from beneath his cloak a hand of
which Milo of Crotona would have envied him the possession, on the day
when he had that unhappy idea of rending his last oak. The king dreaded
violence, for he could well believe that the two men into whose power he
had fallen had not gone so far with any idea of drawing back, and that
they would consequently be ready to proceed to extremities, if
necessary. He shook his head, and said: "It seems I have fallen into the
hands of a couple of assassins. Move on, then."

Neither of the men answered a word to this remark. The one who carried
the lantern walked the first, the king followed him, while the second
masked figure closed the procession. In this manner they passed along a
winding gallery of some length, with as many staircases leading out of
it as are to be found in the mysterious and gloomy palaces of Ann