must be had then, at any price."

"D'Artagnan?"

"Is that not your opinion?"

"It may be my opinion, but you will never get him."

"Why?"

"Because we have allowed the time to go by. He was dissatisfied with the
court, we should have profited by that; since that, he has passed into
England; there he powerfully assisted in the restoration, there he
gained a fortune, and, after all, he returned to the service of the
king. Well, if he has returned to the service of the king, it is because
he is well paid in that service."

"We will pay him even better, that is all."

"Oh! monsieur, excuse me; D'Artagnan has a high respect for his word,
and where that is once engaged he keeps it."

"What do you conclude, then?" said Fouquet, with great inquietude.

"At present, the principal thing is to parry a dangerous blow."

"And how is it to be parried?"

"Listen."

"But D'Artagnan will come and render an account to the king of his
mission."

"Oh, we have time enough to think about that."

"How so? You are much in advance of him, I presume?"

"Nearly ten hours."

"Well, in ten hours--"

Aramis shook his pale head. "Look at these clouds which flit across
the heavens; at these swallows which cut the air. D'Artagnan moves
more quickly than the clouds or the birds; D'Artagnan is the wind which
carries them."

"A strange man!"

"I tell you, he is superhuman, monsieur. He is of my own age, and I have
known him these five-and-thirty years."

"Well?"

"Well, listen to my calculation, monsieur. I send M. du Vallon off to
you two hours after midnight. M. du Vallon was eight hours in advance of
me; when did M. du Vallon arrive?"

"About four hours ago."

"You see, then, that I gained four upon him; and yet Porthos is a
staunch horseman, and he has left on the road eight dead horses, whose
bodies I came to successively. I rode post fifty leagues; but I have the
gout, the gravel, and what else I know not; so that fatigue kills me.
I was obliged to dismount at Tours; since that, rolling along in a
carriage, half dead, sometimes overturned, drawn upon the sides, and
sometimes on the back of the carriage, always with four spirited
horses at full gallop, I have arrived--arrived, gaining four hours upon
Porthos; but, see you, D'Artagnan does not weigh three hundred-weight,
as Porthos does; D'Artagnan has not the gout and gravel, as I have; he
is not a horseman, he is a centaur. D'Artagnan, look you, set out for
Belle-Isl