He
begs you to believe that at a gesture of your majesty everything will be
possible to him. He has faith in himself; he has faith in his friends;
he wishes also to have faith in his queen. And in proof that he fears
nothing, that he counts on nothing, he will restore Monsieur de Mazarin
to your majesty without conditions. Behold, madame! here are the august
signatures of your majesty's hand; if you think you are right in giving
them to me, you shall do so, but from this very moment you are free from
any obligation to keep them."

And D'Artagnan, full of splendid pride and manly intrepidity, placed in
Anne's hands, in a bundle, the papers that he had one by one won from
her with so much difficulty.

There are moments--for if everything is not good, everything in this
world is not bad--in which the most rigid and the coldest soul is
softened by the tears of strong emotion, heart-arraigning sentiment: one
of these momentary impulses actuated Anne. D'Artagnan, when he gave
way to his own feelings--which were in accordance with those of the
queen--had accomplished more than the most astute diplomacy could
have attempted. He was therefore instantly recompensed, either for his
address or for his sensibility, whichever it might be termed.

"You were right, sir," said Anne. "I misunderstood you. There are the
acts signed; I deliver them to you without compulsion. Go and bring me
back the cardinal as soon as possible."

"Madame," faltered D'Artagnan, "'tis twenty years ago--I have a good
memory--since I had the honor behind a piece of tapestry in the Hotel de
Ville, of kissing one of those lovely hands."

"There is the other," replied the queen; "and that the left hand should
not be less liberal than the right," she drew from her finger a diamond
similar to the one formerly given to him, "take and keep this ring in
remembrance of me.

"Madame," said D'Artagnan, rising, "I have only one thing more to wish,
which is, that the next thing you ask from me, shall be--my life."

And with this conclusion--a way peculiar to himself--he rose and left
the room.

"I never rightly understood those men," said the queen, as she watched
him retiring from her presence; "and it is now too late, for in a year
the king will be of age."

In twenty-four hours D'Artagnan and Porthos conducted Mazarin to the
queen; and the one received his commission, the other his patent of
nobility.

On the same day the Treaty of Paris was signed, and it