r time--it is precious.
We shall not be safe till we have seen Mazarin, and then----"

"The devil!" said Porthos; "what can we say to Mazarin?"

"Leave that to me--I have my plan. He laughs best who laughs last.
Cromwell is mighty, Mazarin is tricky, but I would rather have to do
with them than with the late Monsieur Mordaunt."

"Ah!" said Porthos, "it is very pleasant to be able to say 'the late
Monsieur Mordaunt.'"

"My faith, yes," said D'Artagnan. "But we must be going."

The two immediately started across country toward the road to Paris,
followed by Mousqueton, who, after being too cold all night, at the end
of a quarter of an hour found himself too warm.

75. The Return.

During the six weeks that Athos and Aramis had been absent from France,
the Parisians, finding themselves one morning without either queen or
king, were greatly annoyed at being thus deserted, and the absence of
Mazarin, a thing so long desired, did not compensate for that of the two
august fugitives.

The first feeling that pervaded Paris on hearing of the flight to Saint
Germain, was that sort of affright which seizes children when they awake
in the night and find themselves alone. A deputation was therefore
sent to the queen to entreat her to return to Paris; but she not only
declined to receive the deputies, but sent an intimation by Chancellor
Seguier, implying that if the parliament did not humble itself before
her majesty by negativing all the questions that had been the cause of
the quarrel, Paris would be besieged the very next day.

This threatening answer, unluckily for the court, produced quite a
different effect to that which was intended. It wounded the pride of the
parliament, which, supported by the citizens, replied by declaring that
Cardinal Mazarin was the cause of all the discontent; denounced him as
the enemy both of the king and the state, and ordered him to retire
from the court that same day and from France within a week afterward;
enjoining, in case of disobedience on his part, all the subjects of the
king to pursue and take him.

Mazarin being thus placed beyond the pale of the protection of the
law, preparations on both sides were commenced--by the queen, to attack
Paris, by the citizens, to defend it. The latter were occupied in
breaking up the pavement and stretching chains across the streets, when,
headed by the coadjutor, appeared the Prince de Conti (the brother of
the Prince de Conde) and th