re concealing something from me, Saint-Aignan."

"Nothing, sire, I assure you."

"Then, explain to me how the accident happened; was it a musket that
burst?"

"Very likely, sire. But yet, on reflection, it could hardly have been
that, for Guiche's pistol was found close by him still loaded."

"His pistol? But a man does not go to a boar-hunt with a pistol, I
should think."

"Sire, it is also said that Guiche's horse was killed, and that the
horse is still to be found in the wide open glade in the forest."

"His horse?--Guiche go on horseback to a boar-hunt!--Saint-Aignan, I do
not understand a syllable of what you have been telling me. Where did
the affair happen?"

"At the Rond-point, in that part of the forest called the Bois-Rochin."

"That will do. Call M. d'Artagnan." Saint-Aignan obeyed, and the
musketeer entered.

"Monsieur d'Artagnan," said the king, "you will leave this place by the
little door of the private staircase."

"Yes, sire."

"You will mount your horse."

"Yes, sire."

"And you will proceed to the Rond-point du Bois-Rochin. Do you know the
spot?"

"Yes, sire. I have fought there twice."

"What!" exclaimed the king, amazed at the reply.

"Under the edicts, sire, of Cardinal Richelieu," returned D'Artagnan,
with his usual impassibility.

"That is very different, monsieur. You will, therefore, go there, and
will examine the locality very carefully. A man has been wounded there,
and you will find a horse lying dead. You will tell me what your opinion
is upon the whole affair."

"Very good, sire."

"It is a matter of course that it is your own opinion I require, and not
that of any one else."

"You shall have it in an hour's time, sire."

"I prohibit your speaking with any one, whoever it may be."

"Except with the person who must give me a lantern," said D'Artagnan.

"Oh! that is a matter of course," said the king, laughing at the
liberty, which he tolerated in no one but his captain of musketeers.
D'Artagnan left by the little staircase.

"Now, let my physician be sent for," said Louis. Ten minutes afterward
the king's physician arrived, quite out of breath.

"You will go, monsieur," said the king to him, "and accompany M. de
Saint-Aignan wherever he may take you; you will render me an account of
the state of the person you may see in the house you will be taken to."
The physician obeyed without a remark, as at that time people began to
obey Louis XIV., and left the room