s to
get good men in his employment."

"Oh! the king means no harm," replied the young man.

"I say nothing about the crown," cried D'Artagnan; "I am speaking of the
king--the king, that is M. Fouquet, if the cardinal is dead. You must
contrive to stand well with M. Fouquet, if you do not wish to molder
away all your life as I have moldered. It is true you have, fortunately,
other protectors."

"M. le Prince, for instance."

"Worn out! worn out!"

"M. le Comte de la Fere?"

"Athos! Oh! that's different; yes, Athos--and if you have any wish to
make your way in England, you cannot apply to a better person; I can
even say, without too much vanity, that I myself have some credit at the
court of Charles II. There is a king--God speed him!"

"Ah!" cried Raoul, with the natural curiosity of well-born young people,
while listening to experience and courage.

"Yes, a king who amuses himself, it is true, but who has had a sword
in his hand, and can appreciate useful men. Athos is on good terms
with Charles II. Take service there, and leave these scoundrels of
contractors and farmers-general, who steal as well with French hands as
others have done with Italian hands; leave the little snivelling
king, who is going to give us another reign of Francis II. Do you know
anything of history, Raoul?"

"Yes, monsieur le chevalier."

"Do you know, then, that Francis II. had always the earache?"

"No, I did not know that."

"That Charles IV. had always the headache?"

"Indeed!"

"And Henry III. had always the stomach-ache?"

Raoul began to laugh.

"Well, my dear friend, Louis XIV. always has the heart-ache; it is
deplorable to see a king sighing from morning till night without saying
once in the course of the day, _ventre-saint-gris! corboef!_ or anything
to rouse one."

"Was that the reason why you quitted the service, monsieur le
chevalier?"

"Yes."

"But you yourself, M. d'Artagnan, are throwing the handle after the axe;
you will not make a fortune."

"Who? I?" replied D'Artagnan, in a careless tone; "I am settled--I had
some family property."

Raoul looked at him. The poverty of D'Artagnan was proverbial. A Gascon,
he exceeded in ill-luck all the gasconnades of France and Navarre; Raoul
had a hundred times heard Job and D'Artagnan named together, as the
twins Romulus and Remus. D'Artagnan caught Raoul's look of astonishment.

"And has not your father told you I have been in England?"

"Yes, monsieur le ch