do the same." De Guiche hung
down his head. "Only," continued De Wardes, triumphantly, "was it really
worth while, tell me, to throw this affair of Bragelonne's upon my
shoulders? But, take care, my dear fellow: in bringing the wild boar to
bay, you enrage him to madness; in running down the fox, you give him
the ferocity of the jaguar. The consequence is, that, brought to bay by
you, I shall defend myself to the very last."

"You will be quite right in doing so."

"Yes; but take care; I shall work more harm than you think. In the first
place, as a beginning, you will readily suppose that I have not been
absurd enough to lock up my secret, or your secret rather, in my own
breast. There is a friend of mine, who resembles me in every way, a man
whom you know very well, who shares my secret with me; so, pray
understand, that if you kill me, my death will not have been of much
service to you; while, on the contrary, if I kill you--and everything is
possible, you know--you understand?" De Guiche shuddered. "If I kill
you," continued De Wardes, "you will have secured two mortal enemies to
Madame, who will do their very utmost to ruin her."

"Oh! monsieur," exclaimed De Guiche furiously, "do not reckon upon my
death so easily. Of the two enemies you speak of, I trust most heartily
to dispose of one immediately, and the other at the earliest
opportunity."

The only reply De Wardes made was a burst of laughter, so diabolical in
its sound, that a superstitious man would have been terrified by it. But
De Guiche was not so impressionable as that. "I think," he said, "that
everything is now settled, Monsieur de Wardes; so have the goodness to
take your place first, unless you would prefer me to do so."

"By no means," said De Wardes. "I shall be delighted to save you the
slightest trouble." And putting his horse into a gallop, he crossed the
wide open space, and took his stand at the point of the circumference of
the cross roads which was immediately opposite to where De Guiche was
stationed. De Guiche remained motionless. At the distance of a hundred
paces, the two adversaries were absolutely invisible to each other,
being completely concealed by the thick shade of elms and chestnuts. A
minute elapsed amid the profoundest silence. At the end of the minute,
each of them, in the deep shade in which he was concealed, heard the
double click of the trigger, as they put the pistols on full cock. De
Guiche, adopting the usual tactic