appetite, we will extend it to
an hour and a half; that is enough, I think. I will wait where I am."

"Oh! dear Monsieur d'Artagnan, the order is, not to allow any person to
remain in this corridor; I am on guard for that purpose."

D'Artagnan felt his anger mounting a second time to his brain. He went
out quickly, for fear of complicating the affair by a display of
ill-humor. As soon as he was out he began to reflect. "The king," said
he, "will not receive me, that is evident. The young man is angry; he is
afraid of the words I may speak to him. Yes; but in the meantime,
Belle-Isle is besieged, and my two friends are taken or killed. Poor
Porthos! As to Master Aramis, he is always full of resources, and I am
quite easy on his account. But, no, no; Porthos is not yet an invalid,
and Aramis is not yet in his dotage. The one with his arm, the other
with his imagination, will find work for his majesty's soldiers. Who
knows if these brave men may not get up for the edification of his Most
Christian Majesty a little bastion of Saint-Gervais! I don't despair of
it. They have cannon and a garrison. And yet," continued D'Artagnan, "I
don't know whether it would not be better to stop the combat. For myself
alone, I will not put up with either surly looks, or treason, on the
part of the king; but for my friends, rebuffs, insults, I have a right
to receive everything. Shall I go to M. Colbert? Now there is a man,
whom I must acquire the habit of terrifying. I will go to M. Colbert."
And D'Artagnan set forward bravely to find M. Colbert, but he was told
he was working with the king, at the castle of Nantes. "Good!" cried he,
"the times are returned in which I measured my steps from M. de
Treville to the cardinal, from the cardinal to the queen, from the
queen to Louis XIII. Truly is it said that men, in growing old, become
children again!--To the castle, then!" He returned thither. M. de Lyonne
was coming out. He gave D'Artagnan both hands, but told him that the
king had been busy all the preceding evening and all night, and that
orders had been given that no one should be admitted.

"Not even the captain who takes the order?" cried D'Artagnan. "I think
that he is rather too strong."

"Not even he," said M. de Lyonne.

"Since that is the case," replied D'Artagnan, wounded to the heart;
"since the captain of the musketeers, who has always entered the king's
chamber, is no longer allowed to enter it, his cabinet, or his
_salle-