how treacherously you have
behaved towards me."

"In what way?" exclaimed Porthos.

"What! you complete so admirable a work as the fortifications of
Belle-Isle, and you did not tell me of it!" Porthos colored. "Nay, more
than that," continued D'Artagnan, "you saw me out yonder, you know I
am in the king's service, and yet you could not guess that the king,
jealously desirous of learning the name of the man whose abilities had
wrought a work of which he heard the most wonderful accounts,--you could
not guess, I say, that the king sent me to learn who this man was?"

"What! the king sent you to learn--"

"Of course; but don't let us speak of that any more."

"Not speak of it!" said Porthos; "on the contrary, we will speak of it;
and so the king knew that we were fortifying Belle-Isle?"

"Of course; does not the king know everything?"

"But he did not know who was fortifying it?"

"No, he only suspected, from what he had been told of the nature of the
works, that it was some celebrated soldier or another."

"The devil!" said Porthos, "if I had only known that!"

"You would not have run away from Vannes as you did, perhaps?"

"No; what did you say when you couldn't find me?"

"My dear fellow, I reflected."

"Ah, indeed; you reflect, do you? Well, and what did that reflection
lead to?"

"It led me to guess the whole truth."

"Come, then, tell me what did you guess after all?" said Porthos,
settling himself into an armchair, and assuming the airs of a sphinx.

"I guessed, in the first place, that you were fortifying Belle-Isle."

"There was no great difficulty in that, for you saw me at work."

"Wait a minute; I also guessed something else,--that you were fortifying
Belle-Isle by M. Fouquet's orders."

"That's true."

"But even that is not all. Whenever I feel myself in trim for guessing,
I do not stop on my road; and so I guessed that M. Fouquet wished to
preserve the most absolute secrecy respecting these fortifications."

"I believe that was his intention, in fact," said Porthos.

"Yes, but do you know why he wished to keep it secret?"

"In order it should not become known, perhaps," said Porthos.

"That was his principal reason. But his wish was subservient to a bit of
generosity--"

"In fact," said Porthos, "I have head it said that M. Fouquet was a very
generous man."

"To a bit of generosity he wished to exhibit towards the king."

"Oh, oh!"

"You seem surprised at that?"

"Yes."