p well your last night as
citizen."

"I am to be a soldier then?" said the young man. "Oh, monsieur, I thank
you with all my heart."

"Adieu, count," said the Abbe d'Herblay; "I return to my convent."

"Adieu, abbe," said the coadjutor, "I am to preach to-morrow and have
twenty texts to examine this evening."

"Adieu, gentlemen," said the count; "I am going to sleep twenty-four
hours; I am just falling down with fatigue."

The three men saluted one another, whilst exchanging a last look.

Scarron followed their movements with a glance from the corner of his
eye.

"Not one of them will do as he says," he murmured, with his little
monkey smile; "but they may do as they please, the brave gentlemen! Who
knows if they will not manage to restore to me my pension? They can move
their arms, they can, and that is much. Alas, I have only my tongue, but
I will try to show that it is good for something. Ho, there, Champenois!
here, it is eleven o'clock. Come and roll me to bed. Really, that
Demoiselle d'Aubigne is very charming!"

So the invalid disappeared soon afterward and went into his
sleeping-room; and one by one the lights in the salon of the Rue des
Tournelles were extinguished.

22. Saint Denis.

The day had begun to break when Athos arose and dressed himself. It was
plain, by a paleness still greater than usual, and by those traces which
loss of sleep leaves on the face, that he must have passed almost the
whole of the night without sleeping. Contrary to the custom of a man
so firm and decided, there was this morning in his personal appearance
something tardy and irresolute.

He was occupied with the preparations for Raoul's departure and was
seeking to gain time. In the first place he himself furbished a sword,
which he drew from its perfumed leather sheath; he examined it to see
if its hilt was well guarded and if the blade was firmly attached to the
hilt. Then he placed at the bottom of the valise belonging to the young
man a small bag of louis, called Olivain, the lackey who had followed
him from Blois, and made him pack the valise under his own eyes,
watchful to see that everything should be put in which might be useful
to a young man entering on his first campaign.

At length, after occupying about an hour in these preparations, he
opened the door of the room in which the vicomte slept, and entered.

The sun, already high, penetrated into the room through the window, the
curtains of which