Jussac; 'I order you to
desist.'

"'Ah, if you order me, it is another affair!' said Bicarat; 'you
are my superior, and I must obey.'

"And giving a spring backwards, he broke his sword across his
knee, in order not to yield it up, threw the pieces over the
convent wall, and, crossing his arms, whistled a Cardinalist air.

"Courage is always respected even in an enemy. The mousquetaires
saluted Bicarat with their swords, and returned them to their
scabbards. D'Artagnan did the same, and, assisted by Bicarat, he
carried under the convent porch Jussac, Cahusac, and that one of
Aramis's adversaries who was only wounded. The other, as already
observed, was dead. They then rang the bell, and left the ground;
the mousquetaires and D'Artagnan, intoxicated with joy, carrying
away four swords out of five, and taking the direction of
Monsieur de Treville's hotel. Every mousquetaire whom they met,
and informed of what had happened, turned back and accompanied
them; so that at last their march was like a triumphal
procession. D'Artagnan was beside himself with delight; he walked
between Athos and Porthos, holding an arm of each.

"'If I am not yet a mousquetaire,' said he to his new friends, as
they crossed the threshold of the Hotel Treville, 'I may at least
say that I am received apprentice.'"

The result of this affair is to procure D'Artagnan the favour of
Monsieur de Treville and the King--the latter of whom dislikes the
Cardinal in secret nearly as much as he fears him. The young Gascon
has an audience of Louis the Just, who recruits his finances by the
present of a handful of pistoles; and a few days later he is appointed
to a cadetship in the company of guards of the Chevalier des Essarts,
a brother-in-law of Treville. According to the singular ideas of those
days, there was nothing degrading to a gentleman in receiving money
from the king's hand. D'Artagnan, therefore, pockets the pistoles with
many thanks, and takes an early opportunity of dividing them with his
friends with the mythological names, Messieurs Athos, Porthos, and
Aramis, who, according to the custom of mousquetaires, have more gold
upon their coats than in their purses. The courage and good qualities
of the Gascon have won the hearts of the three guardsmen, and he is
admitted to make a fourth in their brotherhood, of which the motto is,
"_Un