ed, we were both so much overcome
by our emotions that we omitted to confide to each other what we may
have had to say."

"Yes, madame."

"Well, then, I had no sooner left you than I repented, and have ever
since been most anxious to ascertain the truth. You know that Madame de
Longueville and myself are almost one, I suppose?"

"I am not aware," said Aramis, discreetly.

"I remembered, therefore," continued, the duchesse, "that neither of us
said anything to the other in the cemetery; that you did not speak of
the relationship in which you stood to the Franciscan, whose burial you
had superintended, and that I did not refer to the position in which I
stood to him; all which seemed very unworthy of two such old friends as
ourselves, and I have sought an opportunity of an interview with you in
order to give you some information that I have recently acquired, and to
assure you that Marie Michon, now no more, has left behind her one who
has preserved her recollection of events."

Aramis bowed over the duchesse's hand, and pressed his lips upon it.
"You must have had some trouble to find me again," he said.

"Yes," she answered, annoyed to find the subject taking a turn which
Aramis wished to give it: "but I knew you were a friend of M. Fouquet's,
and so I inquired in that direction."

"A friend! oh!" exclaimed the chevalier, "I can hardly pretend to be
that. A poor priest who has been favored by so generous a protector, and
whose heart is full of gratitude and devotion to him, is all that I
pretend to be to M. Fouquet."

"He made you a bishop?"

"Yes, duchesse."

"A very good retiring pension for so handsome a musketeer."

"Yes; in the same way that political intrigue is for yourself," thought
Aramis. "And so," he added, "you inquired after me at M. Fouquet's."

"Easily enough. You had been to Fontainebleau with him, and had
undertaken a voyage to your diocese, which is Belle-Isle-en-Mer, I
believe."

"No, madame," said Aramis. "My diocese is Vannes."

"I mean that. I only thought that Belle-Isle-en-Mer--"

"Is a property belonging to M. Fouquet, nothing more."

"Ah: I had been told that Belle-Isle was fortified; besides, I know how
great the military knowledge is you possess."

"I have forgotten everything of the kind since I entered the Church,"
said Aramis, annoyed.

"Suffice it to know that I learned you had returned from Vannes, and I
sent to one of our friends, M. le Comte de la Fere, who is di