it, so that the warmth, and
not the blazing heat of the sun, filters through its leaves."

Raoul stopped, bit his lips, and then, with the blood mantling in his
face, he said, courageously,--"One word of explanation, I beg, monsieur.
You cannot forget that your son is a man."

"In that case," replied Athos, drawing himself up with sternness, "prove
to me that you are a man, for you do not show yourself a son. I begged
you to wait the opportunity of forming an illustrious alliance. I would
have obtained a wife for you from the first ranks of the rich nobility.
I wish you to be distinguished by the splendor which glory and fortune
confer, for nobility of descent you have already."

"Monsieur," exclaimed Raoul, carried away by a first impulse. "I was
reproached the other day for not knowing who my mother was."

Athos turned pale; then, knitting his brows like the greatest of all
the heathen deities:--"I am waiting to learn the reply you made," he
demanded, in an imperious manner.

"Forgive me! oh, forgive me," murmured the young man, sinking at once
from the lofty tone he had assumed.

"What was your reply, monsieur?" inquired the count, stamping his feet
upon the ground.

"Monsieur, my sword was in my hand immediately, my adversary placed
himself on guard, I struck his sword over the palisade, and threw him
after it."

"Why did you suffer him to live?"

"The king has prohibited duelling, and, at the moment, I was an
ambassador of the king."

"Very well," said Athos, "but all the greater reason I should see his
majesty."

"What do you intend to ask him?"

"Authority to draw my sword against the man who has inflicted this
injury upon me."

"If I did not act as I ought to have done, I beg you to forgive me."

"Did I reproach you, Raoul?"

"Still, the permission you are going to ask from the king?"

"I will implore his majesty to sign your marriage-contract, but on one
condition."

"Are conditions necessary with me, monsieur? Command, and you shall be
obeyed."

"On the condition, I repeat," continued Athos; "that you tell me the
name of the man who spoke of your mother in that way."

"What need is there that you should know his name; the offense was
directed against myself, and the permission once obtained from his
majesty, to revenge it is my affair."

"Tell me his name, monsieur."

"I will not allow you to expose yourself."

"Do you take me for a Don Diego? His name, I say."

"You insist upon