How fortunate it is that I
am accustomed to take a long aim, instead of firing at the instant I
raise my weapon! I thought I recognized you. Ah! my dear friends, how
fortunate!" And D'Artagnan wiped his brow, for he had run fast, and
emotion with him was not feigned.

"How!" said Athos. "And is the gentleman who fired at us the governor of
the fortress?"

"In person."

"And why did he fire at us? What have we done to him?"

"Pardieu! You received what the prisoner threw to you?"

"That is true."

"That plate--the prisoner has written something on the bottom of it, has
he not?"

"Yes."

"Good heavens! I was afraid he had."

And D'Artagnan, with all the marks of mortal disquietude, seized the
plate, to read the inscription. When he had read it, a fearful pallor
spread over his countenance. "Oh! Good heavens!" repeated he.
"Silence!--Here is the governor."

"And what will he do to us? Is it our fault?"

"It is true, then?" said Athos, in a subdued voice. "Is it true?"

"Silence! I tell you!--silence! If he only believes you can read; if he
only suspects you have understood; I love you, my dear friends, I will
be killed for you. But--"

"But--" said Athos and Raoul.

"But, I could not save you from perpetual imprisonment, if I saved you
from death. Silence, then! Silence again!"

The governor came up, having crossed the ditch upon a plank bridge.

"Well!" said he to D'Artagnan, "what stops us?"

"You are Spaniards--you do not understand a word of French," said the
captain, eagerly, to his friends in a low voice.

"Well!" replied he, addressing the governor, "I was right; these
gentlemen are two Spanish captains with whom I was acquainted at Ypres,
last year; they don't know a word of French."

"Ah!" said the governor, sharply. "And yet they were trying to read the
inscription on the plate."

D'Artagnan took it out of his hands, effacing the characters with the
point of his sword.

"How!" cried the governor--"what are you doing? I cannot read them now!"

"It is a state secret," replied D'Artagnan, bluntly: "and as you know
that, according to the king's orders, it is under the penalty of death
any one should penetrate it, I will, if you like, allow you to read it
and have you shot immediately afterward."

During this apostrophe--half serious, half ironical--Athos and Raoul
preserved the coolest, most unconcerned silence.

"But, is it possible," said the governor, "that these gentlemen do not