ther hanged nor shot. Sang Diou! let
them come on! Besides--do you see that door, Athos?"

"Yes; what then?"

"Well, you can go out by that door whenever you please; for from this
moment you are free as the air."

"I recognize you there, my brave D'Artagnan," replied Athos; "but you
are no longer our masters. That door is guarded, D'Artagnan; you know
that."

"Very well, you will force it," said Porthos. "There are only a dozen
men at the most."

"That would be nothing for us four; it is too much for us two. No,
divided as we now are, we must perish. See the fatal example: on the
Vendomois road, D'Artagnan, you so brave, and you, Porthos, so valiant
and so strong--you were beaten; to-day Aramis and I are beaten in our
turn. Now that never happened to us when we were four together. Let
us die, then, as De Winter has died; as for me, I will fly only on
condition that we all fly together."

"Impossible," said D'Artagnan; "we are under Mazarin's orders."

"I know it and I have nothing more to say; my arguments lead to nothing;
doubtless they are bad, since they have not determined minds so just as
yours."

"Besides," said Aramis, "had they taken effect it would be still better
not to compromise two excellent friends like D'Artagnan and Porthos. Be
assured, gentlemen, we shall do you honor in our dying. As for myself,
I shall be proud to face the bullets, or even the rope, in company with
you, Athos; for you have never seemed to me so grand as you are to-day."

D'Artagnan said nothing, but, after having gnawed the flower stalk, he
began to bite his nails. At last:

"Do you imagine," he resumed, "that they mean to kill you? And wherefore
should they do so? What interest have they in your death? Moreover, you
are our prisoners."

"Fool!" cried Aramis; "knowest thou not, then, Mordaunt? I have but
exchanged with him one look, yet that look convinced me that we were
doomed."

"The truth is, I'm very sorry that I did not strangle him as you advised
me," said Porthos.

"Eh! I make no account of the harm Mordaunt can do!" cried D'Artagnan.
"Cap de Diou! if he troubles me too much I will crush him, the insect!
Do not fly, then. It is useless; for I swear to you that you are as safe
here as you were twenty years, ago--you, Athos, in the Rue Ferou, and
you, Aramis, in the Rue de Vaugirard."

"Stop," cried Athos, extending his hand to one of the grated windows by
which the room was lighted; "you will soon know what t