an, "and may you both be blessed for
your piety. You have done for me, as you promised, all that you could
do. As for me I can only repeat, may God protect you and all dear to
you!"

"Sir," said De Guiche to his tutor, "we will precede you, and you can
rejoin us on the road to Cambrin."

The host was at his door and everything was prepared--bed, bandages, and
lint; and a groom had gone to Lens, the nearest village, for a doctor.

"Everything," said he to Raoul, "shall be done as you desire; but you
will not stop to have your wound dressed?"

"Oh, my wound--mine--'tis nothing," replied the viscount; "it will be
time to think about it when we next halt; only have the goodness, should
you see a cavalier who makes inquiries about a young man on a chestnut
horse followed by a servant, to tell him, in fact, that you have
seen me, but that I have continued my journey and intend to dine at
Mazingarbe and to stop at Cambrin. This cavalier is my attendant."

"Would it not be safer and more certain if I should ask him his name and
tell him yours?" demanded the host.

"There is no harm in over-precaution. I am the Viscount de Bragelonne
and he is called Grimaud."

At this moment the wounded man arrived from one direction and the monk
from the other, the latter dismounting from his mule and desiring that
it should be taken to the stables without being unharnessed.

"Sir monk," said De Guiche, "confess well that brave man; and be not
concerned for your expenses or for those of your mule; all is paid."

"Thanks, monsieur," said the monk, with one of those smiles that made
Bragelonne shudder.

"Come, count," said Raoul, who seemed instinctively to dislike the
vicinity of the Augustine; "come, I feel ill here," and the two young
men spurred on.

The litter, borne by two servants, now entered the house. The host and
his wife were standing on the steps, whilst the unhappy man seemed to
suffer dreadful pain and yet to be concerned only to know if he was
followed by the monk. At sight of this pale, bleeding man, the wife
grasped her husband's arm.

"Well, what's the matter?" asked the latter, "are you going to be ill
just now?"

"No, but look," replied the hostess, pointing to the wounded man; "I ask
you if you recognize him?"

"That man--wait a bit."

"Ah! I see you know him," exclaimed the wife; "for you have become pale
in your turn."

"Truly," cried the host, "misfortune is coming on our house; it is the
former exe