ok the
shortest route and should have arrived before we did."

"Add to that D'Artagnan's rapidity in action and that he is not the man
to lose an hour, knowing that we were expecting him."

"He expected, you will remember, to be here on the fifth."

"And here we are at the ninth. This evening the margin of possible delay
expires."

"What do you think should be done," asked Athos, "if we have no news of
them to-night?"

"Pardieu! we must go and look for them."

"All right," said Athos.

"But Raoul?" said Aramis.

A light cloud passed over the count's face.

"Raoul gives me much uneasiness," he said. "He received yesterday a
message from the Prince de Conde; he went to meet him at Saint Cloud and
has not returned."

"Have you seen Madame de Chevreuse?"

"She was not at home. And you, Aramis, you were going, I think, to visit
Madame de Longueville."

"I did go there."

"Well?"

"She was no longer there, but she had left her new address."

"Where was she?"

"Guess; I give you a thousand chances."

"How should I know where the most beautiful and active of the Frondists
was at midnight? for I presume it was when you left me that you went to
visit her."

"At the Hotel de Ville, my dear fellow."

"What! at the Hotel de Ville? Has she, then, been appointed provost of
merchants?"

"No; but she has become queen of Paris, ad interim, and since she could
not venture at once to establish herself in the Palais Royal or the
Tuileries, she is installed at the Hotel de Ville, where she is on the
point of giving an heir or an heiress to that dear duke."

"You didn't tell me of that, Aramis."

"Really? It was my forgetfulness then; pardon me."

"Now," asked Athos, "what are we to do with ourselves till evening? Here
we are without occupation, it seems to me."

"You forget, my friend, that we have work cut out for us in the
direction of Charenton; I hope to see Monsieur de Chatillon, whom I've
hated for a long time, there."

"Why have you hated him?"

"Because he is the brother of Coligny."

"Ah, true! he who presumed to be a rival of yours, for which he was
severely punished; that ought to satisfy you."

"'Yes, but it does not; I am rancorous--the only stigma that proves me
to be a churchman. Do you understand? You understand that you are in no
way obliged to go with me."

"Come, now," said Athos, "you are joking."

"In that case, my dear friend, if you are resolved to accompany me there
is no tim