to his wound, madame."

"So much the better, then, for, in other respects, M. de Guiche seems to
be very happy; he is always in very high spirits. I am sure that you,
Monsieur de Bragelonne, would far prefer to be, like him, wounded only
in the body ... for what, indeed, is such a wound, after all!"

Raoul started. "Alas!" he said to himself, "she is returning to it."

"What did you say?" she inquired.

"I did not say anything, madame."

"You did not say anything; you disapprove of my observation, then? you
are perfectly satisfied, I suppose?"

Raoul approached closer to her. "Madame," he said, "your royal highness
wishes to say something to me, and your instinctive kindness and
generosity of disposition induce you to be careful and considerate as to
your manner of conveying it. Will your royal highness throw this kind
forbearance aside? I am able to bear everything; and I am listening."

"Ah!" replied Henrietta, "what do you understand, then?"

"That which your royal highness wishes me to understand," said Raoul,
trembling, notwithstanding his command over himself, as he pronounced
these words.

"In point of fact," murmured the princess ... "it seems cruel, but since
I have begun--"

"Yes, madame, since your highness has deigned to begin, will you deign
to finish--"

Henrietta rose hurriedly, and walked a few paces up and down the room.
"What did M. de Guiche tell you?" she said, suddenly.

"Nothing, madame."

"Nothing! Did he say nothing? Ah! how well I recognize him in that."

"No doubt he wished to spare me."

"And that is what friends call friendship. But surely. Monsieur
d'Artagnan, whom you have just left, must have told you."

"No more than Guiche, madame."

Henrietta made a gesture full of impatience, as she said, "At least, you
know all that the court has known!"

"I know nothing at all, madame."

"Not the scene in the storm?"

"No, madame."

"Not the tete-a-tete in the forest?"

"No, madame."

"Nor the flight to Chaillot?"

Raoul, whose head drooped like flower which has been cut down by the
sickle, made an almost superhuman effort to smile, as he replied with
the greatest gentleness: "I have had the honor to tell your royal
highness that I am absolutely ignorant of everything, that I am a poor
unremembered outcast, who has this moment arrived from England. There
have been so many stormy waves between myself and those whom I left
behind me here, that the rumor of none of the c