ber. The king
could be heard distinctly, speaking aloud to Colbert, in the same
cabinet where Colbert might have heard, a few days before, the king
speaking aloud with M. d'Artagnan. The guards remained as a mounted
piquet before the principal gate; and the report was quickly spread
through the city that monsieur le capitaine of the musketeers had just
been arrested by order of the king. Then, these men were seen to be in
motion, as, in the good old times of Louis XIII., and M. de Treville;
groups were formed, the staircases were filled; vague murmurs, issuing
from the courts below, came rolling up to the upper stories, like the
hoarse moanings of the tide-waves. M. de Gesvres became very uneasy. He
looked at his guards, who, after being interrogated by the musketeers
who had just got among their ranks, began to shun them with a
manifestation of uneasiness. D'Artagnan was certainly less disturbed
than M. de Gesvres, the captain of the guards, was. As soon as he
entered, he had seated himself on the ledge of a window, whence, with
his eagle glance, he saw all that was going on, without the least
emotion. None of the progress of the fermentation which had manifested
itself at the report of his arrest had escaped him. He foresaw the
moment when the explosion would take place, and we know that his
previsions were pretty correct.

"It would be very whimsical," thought he, "if, this evening, my
praetorians should make me king of France. How I should laugh!"

But, at the height, all was stopped. Guards, musketeers, officers,
soldiers, murmurs and uneasinesses, all dispersed, vanished, died away;
no more tempest, no more menace, no more sedition. One word had calmed
all the waves. The king had desired Brienne to say, "Hush, messieurs!
you disturb the king."

D'Artagnan sighed. "All is over!" said he; "the musketeers of the
present day are not those of his majesty Louis XIII. All is over!"

"M. d'Artagnan to the king's apartment," cried an usher.

CHAPTER CXXVII.

KING LOUIS XIV.

The king was seated in his cabinet, with his back turned toward the door
of entrance. In front of him was a mirror, in which, while turning over
his papers, he could see with a glance those who came in. He did not
take any notice of the entrance of D'Artagnan, but laid over his letters
and plans the large silk cloth which he made use of to conceal his
secrets from the importunate. D'Artagnan understood his play, and kept
in the backgro