hey are, monsieur."

"You can understand if I ought to act toward them as your instructions
prescribe."

"I understand your reserves."

"Very well; permit me, then, to converse with them without a witness."

"Monsieur d'Artagnan, if I yielded to your request, if I did that which
you beg me to do, I should break my word; but if I do not do it, I shall
disoblige you. I prefer the one to the other. Converse with your
friends, and do not despise me, monsieur, for doing for the sake of you,
whom I esteem and honor; do not despise me for committing for you, and
you alone, an unworthy act." D'Artagnan, much agitated, passed his arms
rapidly round the neck of the young man, and went up to his friends. The
officer, enveloped in his cloak, sat down on the damp weed-covered
steps.

"Well!" said D'Artagnan to his friends, "such is my position, judge for
yourselves." They all three embraced. All three pressed each other in
their arms as in the glorious days of their youth.

"What is the meaning of all these rigors?" said Porthos.

"You ought to have some suspicions of what it is," said D'Artagnan.

"Not much, I assure you, my dear captain; for, in fact, I have done
nothing, no more has Aramis," hastened the worthy baron to say.

D'Artagnan darted a reproachful look at the prelate, which penetrated
that hardened heart.

"Dear Porthos!" cried the bishop of Vannes.

"You see what has been done against you," said D'Artagnan: "interception
of all that is coming to or going from Belle-Isle. Your boats are all
seized. If you had endeavored to fly, you would have fallen into the
hands of the cruisers which plow the sea in all directions, on the watch
for you. The king wants you to be taken, and he will take you." And
D'Artagnan tore several hairs from his gray mustache. Aramis became
somber, Porthos angry.

"My idea was this," continued D'Artagnan; "to make you both come on
board, to keep you near me, and restore you your liberty. But now, who
can say that when I return to my ship I may not find a superior?--that I
may not find secret orders which will take from me my command, and give
it to another, who will dispose of me and you without hopes of help?"

"We must remain at Belle-Isle," said Aramis, resolutely; "and I assure
you, for my part, I will not surrender easily." Porthos said nothing.
D'Artagnan remarked the silence of his friend.

"I have another trial to make of this officer, of this brave fellow who
accompanies