--all four
reunited for the first time for twenty years--we would dare not only
England, but the three kingdoms put together!"

"And did you promise the queen," resumed D'Artagnan, petulantly, "to
storm the Tower of London, to kill a hundred thousand soldiers, to fight
victoriously against the wishes of the nation and the ambition of a man,
and when that man is Cromwell? Do not exaggerate your duty. In Heaven's
name, my dear Athos, do not make a useless sacrifice. When I see you
merely, you look like a reasonable being; when you speak, I seem to have
to do with a madman. Come, Porthos, join me; say frankly, what do you
think of this business?"

"Nothing good," replied Porthos.

"Come," continued D'Artagnan, who, irritated that instead of listening
to him Athos seemed to be attending to his own thoughts, "you have never
found yourself the worse for my advice. Well, then, believe me, Athos,
your mission is ended, and ended nobly; return to France with us."

"Friend," said Athos, "our resolution is irrevocable."

"Then you have some other motive unknown to us?"

Athos smiled and D'Artagnan struck his hand together in anger and
muttered the most convincing reasons that he could discover; but to all
these reasons Athos contented himself by replying with a calm, sweet
smile and Aramis by nodding his head.

"Very well," cried D'Artagnan, at last, furious, "very well, since
you wish it, let us leave our bones in this beggarly land, where it
is always cold, where fine weather is a fog, fog is rain, and rain a
deluge; where the sun represents the moon and the moon a cream cheese;
in truth, whether we die here or elsewhere matters little, since we must
die."

"Only reflect, my good fellow," said Athos, "it is but dying rather
sooner."

"Pooh! a little sooner or a little later, it isn't worth quarreling
over."

"If I am astonished at anything," remarked Porthos, sententiously, "it
is that it has not already happened."

"Oh, it will happen, you may be sure," said D'Artagnan. "So it is
agreed, and if Porthos makes no objection----"

"I," said Porthos, "I will do whatever you please; and besides, I think
what the Comte de la Fere said just now is very good."

"But your future career, D'Artagnan--your ambition, Porthos?"

"Our future, our ambition!" replied D'Artagnan, with feverish
volubility. "Need we think of that since we are to save the king? The
king saved--we shall assemble our friends together--we will head
t