. Athos and Raoul, approaching each other, commenced an
attentive examination of the dusty plate, and they discovered, in
characters traced upon the bottom of it with the point of a knife, this
inscription:

"_I am the brother of the king of France--a prisoner to-day--a madman
to-morrow. French gentlemen and Christians, pray to God for the soul and
the reason of the son of your masters._"

The plate fell from the hands of Athos while Raoul was endeavoring to
make out the meaning of these dismal words. At the same instant they
heard a cry from the top of the donjon. As quick as lightning Raoul bent
down his head, and forced down that of his father likewise. A musket
barrel glittered from the crest of the wall. A white smoke floated like
a plume from the mouth of the musket, and a ball was flattened against a
stone within six inches of the two gentlemen.

"Cordieu!" cried Athos. "What, are people assassinated here? Come down,
cowards as you are!"

"Yes, come down!" cried Raoul, furiously shaking his fist at the castle.

One of the assailants--he who was about to fire--replied to these cries
by an exclamation of surprise; and, as his companion, who wished to
continue the attack, had re-seized his loaded musket, he who had cried
out threw up the weapon, and the ball flew into the air. Athos and
Raoul, seeing them disappear from the platform, expected they would come
to them, and waited with a firm demeanor. Five minutes had not elapsed,
when a stroke upon a drum called the eight soldiers of the garrison to
arms, and they showed themselves on the other side of the ditch with
their muskets in hand. At the head of these men was an officer, whom
Athos and Raoul recognized as the one who had fired the first musket.
The man ordered the soldiers to "make ready."

"We are going to be shot!" cried Raoul; "but, sword-in-hand, at least
let us leap the ditch! We shall kill at least two of these scoundrels,
when their muskets are empty." And, suiting the action to the word,
Raoul was springing forward, followed by Athos, when a well-known voice
resounded behind them--"Athos! Raoul!"

"D'Artagnan!" replied the two gentlemen.

"Recover arms! Mordioux!" cried the captain to the soldiers. "I was sure
I could not be mistaken!"

"What is the meaning of this?" asked Athos. "What! were we to be shot
without warning?"

"It was I who was going to shoot you, and if the governor missed you, I
should not have missed you, my dear friends.