ly, I asked a gratification for you. Here it is." He
threw a respectable-looking purse upon the cloth; and all involuntarily
stretched out their hands. "One moment, my lambs," said D'Artagnan; "if
there are profits, there are also charges."

"Oh! oh!" murmured they.

"We are about to find ourselves, my friends, in a position which would
not be tenable for people without brains. I speak plainly; we are
between the gallows and the Bastile."

"Oh! Oh!" said the chorus.

"That is easily understood. It was necessary to explain to General Monk
the disappearance of his treasurer. I waited, for that purpose, till the
unhoped-for moment of the restoration of King Charles II., who is one of
my friends."

This army exchanged a glance of satisfaction in reply to the
sufficiently proud look of D'Artagnan. "The king being restored, I
restored to Monk his man of business, a little plucked, it is true, but,
in short, I restored him. Now, General Monk, when he pardoned me, for
he has pardoned me, could not help repeating these words to me, which I
charge every one of you to engrave deeply there, between the eyes, under
the vault of the cranium:--'Monsieur, the joke has been a good one, but
I don't naturally like jokes; if ever a word of what you have done' (you
understand me, Menneville) 'escapes from your lips, or the lips of your
companions, I have, in my government of Scotland and Ireland, seven
hundred and forty-one wooden gibbets, of strong oak, clamped with iron,
and freshly greased every week. I will make a present of one of these
gibbets to each of you, and observe well, M. d'Artagnan,' added he
(observe it also, M. Menneville), 'I shall still have seven hundred and
thirty left for my private pleasure. And still further--'"

"Ah! ah!" said the auxiliaries, "is there still more?"

"A mere trifle. 'Monsieur d'Artagnan, I send to the king of France the
treaty in question, with a request that he will cast into the Bastile
provisionally, and then send to me, all who have taken part in this
expedition; and that is a prayer with which the king will certainly
comply.'"

A cry of terror broke from all corners of the table.

"There! there! there!" said D'Artagnan, "this brave M. Monk has
forgotten one thing, and that is he does not know the name of any one of
you; I alone know you, and it is not I, you well may believe, who will
betray you. Why should I? As for you--I cannot suppose you will be silly
enough to denounce yourselv