he, "your royal
highness is a daughter of France; and in that quality I hope to see you
again in Paris. One of my happy days will be on that on which your royal
highness shall give me any command whatever, thus proving to me that you
have not forgotten the recommendations of your august brother." And he
bowed respectfully to the young princess, who gave him her hand to kiss
with a right royal grace.

"Ah! madam," said Buckingham, in a subdued voice, "what can a man do to
obtain a similar favor from your royal highness?"

"_Dame!_ my lord," replied Henrietta, "ask Monsieur d'Artagnan; he will
tell you."

Chapter XXXVI. How D'Artagnan drew, as a Fairy would have done, a
Country-Seat from a Deal Box.

The king's words regarding the wounded pride of Monk had inspired
D'Artagnan with no small portion of apprehension. The lieutenant had
had, all his life, the great art of choosing his enemies; and when he
had found them implacable and invincible, it was when he had not been
able, under any pretense, to make them otherwise. But points of view
change greatly in the course of a life. It is a magic lantern, of which
the eye of man every year changes the aspects. It results that from the
last day of a year on which we saw white, to the first day of the year
on which we shall see black, there is the interval of but a single
night.

Now, D'Artagnan, when he left Calais with his ten scamps, would have
hesitated as little in attacking a Goliath, a Nebuchadnezzar, or a
Holofernes, as he would in crossing swords with a recruit or caviling
with a land-lady. Then he resembled the sparrow-hawk, which,
when fasting, will attack a ram. Hunger is blind. But D'Artagnan
satisfied--D'Artagnan rich--D'Artagnan a conqueror--D'Artagnan proud of
so difficult a triumph--D'Artagnan had too much to lose not to reckon,
figure by figure, with probable misfortune.

His thoughts were employed, therefore, all the way on the road from his
presentation, with one thing, and that was, how he should conciliate a
man like Monk, a man whom Charles himself, king as he was, conciliated
with difficulty; for, scarcely established, the protected might again
stand in need of the protector, and would, consequently, not refuse
him, such being the case, the petty satisfaction of transporting M.
d'Artagnan, or of confining him in one of the Middlesex prisons, or
drowning him a little on his passage from Dover to Boulogne. Such sorts
of satisfaction kings are acc