ils against each other.

"It results from this, then, sire, in my eyes at least, that the man who
conducts himself thus is a gallant man, and cannot be an enemy to the
king. That is my opinion, and I repeat it to your majesty. I know what
the king will say to me, and I bow to it; reasons of state--so be it!
That in my eyes is very respectable. But I am a soldier, I have received
my orders, my orders are executed--very unwillingly on my part, it is
true, but they are executed. I say no more."

"Where is M. Fouquet at this moment?" asked Louis, after a short
silence.

"M. Fouquet, sire," replied D'Artagnan, "is in the iron cage that M.
Colbert had prepared for him, and is going, as fast as four vigorous
horses can drag him, toward Angers."

"Why did you leave him on the road?"

"Because your majesty did not tell me to go to Angers. The proof, the
best proof of what I advance, is that the king desired me to be sought
for but this minute. And then I have another reason."

"What is that?"

"While I was with him, poor M. Fouquet would never attempt to escape."

"Well!" cried the king, with stupefaction.

"Your majesty ought to understand, and does understand, certainly, that
my warmest wish is to know that M. Fouquet is at liberty. I have given
him one of my brigadiers, the most stupid I could find among my
musketeers, in order that the prisoner might have a chance of escaping."

"Are you mad, Monsieur d'Artagnan!" cried the king, crossing his arms on
his breast. "Do people speak such enormities, even when they have the
misfortune to think them?"

"Ah! sire, you cannot expect that I should be the enemy of M. Fouquet,
after what he has just done for you and me. No, no; if you desire that
he should remain under your locks and bolts, never give him in charge to
me; however closely wired might be the cage, the bird would, in the end,
fly away."

"I am surprised," said the king, in a stern tone, "you have not followed
the fortunes of him whom M. Fouquet wished to place upon my throne. You
had in him all you want--affection and gratitude. In my service,
monsieur, you only find a master."

"If M. Fouquet had not gone to seek you in the Bastille, sire," replied
D'Artagnan, with a deeply impressive manner, "one single man would have
gone there, and that man would have been me--you know that right well,
sire."

The king was brought to a pause. Before that speech of his captain of
the musketeers, so frankly spoken and