to redeem it, received upon my brow
the blood of the martyred king. I received, at the same time, the last
word of Charles I.; it was to me he said, 'REMEMBER!' and in saying,
'Remember!' he alluded to the money at your feet, my lord."

"I have heard much of you, monsieur," said Monk, "but I am happy to
have, in the first place, appreciated you by my own observations, and
not by my remembrances. I will give you, then, explanations that I have
given to no other, and you will appreciate what a distinction I make
between you and the persons who have hitherto been sent to me."

Athos bowed and prepared to absorb greedily the words which fell, one by
one, from the mouth of Monk,--those words rare and precious as the dew
in the desert.

"You spoke to me," said Monk, "of Charles II.; but pray, monsieur, of
what consequence to me is that phantom of a king? I have grown old in a
war and in a policy which are nowadays so closely linked together,
that every man of the sword must fight in virtue of his rights or his
ambition with a personal interest, and not blindly behind an officer, as
in ordinary wars. For myself, I perhaps desire nothing, but I fear much.
In the war of to-day rests the liberty of England, and, perhaps, that of
every Englishman. How can you expect that I, free in the position I
have made for myself, should go willingly and hold out my hands to the
shackles of a stranger? That is all Charles is to me. He has fought
battles here which he has lost, he is therefore a bad captain; he has
succeeded in no negotiation, he is therefore a bad diplomatist; he has
paraded his wants and his miseries in all the courts of Europe, he has
therefore a weak and pusillanimous heart. Nothing noble, nothing great,
nothing strong has hitherto emanated from that genius which aspires to
govern one of the greatest kingdoms of the earth. I know this Charles,
then, under none but bad aspects, and you would wish me, a man of good
sense, to go and make myself gratuitously the slave of a creature who
is inferior to me in military capacity, in politics, and in dignity! No,
monsieur. When some great and noble action shall have taught me to value
Charles, I shall perhaps recognize his rights to a throne from which we
cast the father because he wanted the virtues which his son has hitherto
lacked, but, in fact of rights, I only recognize my own; the revolution
made me a general, my sword will make me protector, if I wish it.
Let Charles show h