d. I have addressed my people and I have spoken to God; last of
all I speak to you. To maintain a cause which I believed sacred I have
lost the throne and my children their inheritance. A million in gold
remains; it is buried in the cellars of Newcastle Keep. You only know
that this money exists. Make use of it, then, whenever you think it will
be most useful, for my eldest son's welfare. And now, farewell."

"Farewell, saintly, martyred majesty," lisped Athos, chilled with
terror.

A moment's silence ensued and then, in a full, sonorous voice, the king
exclaimed: "Remember!"

He had scarcely uttered the word when a heavy blow shook the scaffold
and where Athos stood immovable a warm drop fell upon his brow. He
reeled back with a shudder and the same moment the drops became a
crimson cataract.

Athos fell on his knees and remained some minutes as if bewildered or
stunned. At last he rose and taking his handkerchief steeped it in the
blood of the martyred king. Then as the crowd gradually dispersed he
leaped down, crept from behind the drapery, glided between two horses,
mingled with the crowd and was the first to arrive at the inn.

Having gained his room he raised his hand to his face, and observing
that his fingers were covered with the monarch's blood, fell down
insensible.

67. The Man in the Mask.

The snow was falling thick and icy. Aramis was the next to come in and
to discover Athos almost insensible. But at the first words he uttered
the comte roused himself from the kind of lethargy in which he had sunk.

"Well," said Aramis, "beaten by fate!"

"Beaten!" said Athos. "Noble and unhappy king!"

"Are you wounded?" cried Aramis.

"No, this is his blood."

"Where were you, then?"

"Where you left me--under the scaffold."

"Did you see it all?"

"No, but I heard all. God preserve me from another such hour as I have
just passed."

"Then you know that I did not leave him?"

"I heard your voice up to the last moment."

"Here is the order he gave me and the cross I took from his hand; he
desired they should be returned to the queen."

"Then here is a handkerchief to wrap them in," replied Athos, drawing
from his pocket the one he had steeped in the king's blood.

"And what," he continued, "has been done with the poor body?"

"By order of Cromwell royal honors will be accorded to it. The doctors
are embalming the corpse, and when it is ready it will be placed in a
lighted chapel."