say that we had too much trouble in taking him to let him
off so easily."

"Bravo, Porthos! and you would be right, my friend; for in losing him
you would lose your barony, which you have in your grasp, to say nothing
of the fact that, were he once out of this, Mazarin would have you
hanged."

"Do you think so?"

"I am sure of it."

"Then I would kill him rather than let him go."

"And you would act rightly. There is no question, you understand,
provided we secure our own interests, of securing those of the
Frondeurs; who, besides, don't understand political matters as we old
soldiers do."

"Never fear, dear friend," said Porthos. "I shall see you through the
window as you mount your horse; I shall follow you with my eyes as long
as you are in sight; then I shall place myself at the cardinal's door--a
door with glass windows. I shall see everything, and at the least
suspicious sign I shall begin to exterminate."

"Bravo!" thought D'Artagnan; "on this side I think the cardinal will be
well guarded." He pressed the hand of the lord of Pierrefonds and went
in search of Athos.

"My dear Athos," he said, "I am going away. I have only one thing to
say to you. You know Anne of Austria; the captivity of Mazarin alone
guarantees my life; if you let him go I am a dead man."

"I needed nothing less than that consideration, my dear D'Artagnan, to
persuade myself to adopt the role of jailer. I give you my word that you
will find the cardinal where you leave him."

"This reassures me more than all the royal signatures," thought
D'Artagnan. "Now that I have the word of Athos I can set out."

D'Artagnan started alone on his journey, without other escort than his
sword, and with a simple passport from Mazarin to secure his admission
to the queen's presence. Six hours after he left Pierrefonds he was at
Saint Germain.

The disappearance of Mazarin was not as yet generally known. Anne of
Austria was informed of it and concealed her uneasiness from every one.
In the chamber of D'Artagnan and Porthos the two soldiers had been found
bound and gagged. On recovering the use of their limbs and tongues they
could, of course, tell nothing but what they knew--that they had been
seized, stripped and bound. But as to what had been done by Porthos and
D'Artagnan afterward they were as ignorant as all the inhabitants of the
chateau.

Bernouin alone knew a little more than the others. Bernouin, seeing that
his master did not return an