tile--purely and
simply, look you!"

"What for?" cried Raoul, terrified at what he heard.

"On account of what I told him one day at Blois. I was warm; he
remembers it."

"You told him what?"

"That he was mean, cowardly, and silly."

"Good God!" cried Raoul, "is it possible that such words should have
issued from your mouth?"

"Perhaps I don't give the letter of my speech, but I give the sense of
it."

"But did not the king have you arrested immediately?"

"By whom? It was I who commanded the musketeers; he must have commanded
me to convey myself to prison; I would never have consented: I would
have resisted myself. And then I went into England--no more D'Artagnan.
Now, the cardinal is dead, or nearly so, they learn that I am in Paris,
and they lay their hands on me."

"The cardinal was your protector?"

"The cardinal knew me; he knew certain particularities of me; I also
knew some of his; we appreciated each other mutually. And then, on
rendering his soul to the devil, he would recommend Anne of Austria to
make me the inhabitant of a safe place. Go, then, and find your father,
relate the fact to him--and adieu!"

"My dear Monsieur d'Artagnan," said Raoul, very much agitated, after
having looked out the window, "you cannot even fly!"

"Why not?"

"Because there is below an officer of the Swiss guards waiting for you."

"Well?"

"Well, he will arrest you."

D'Artagnan broke into a Homeric laugh.

"Oh! I know very well that you will resist, that you will fight, even;
I know very well that you will prove the conqueror; but that amounts to
rebellion, and you are an officer yourself, knowing what discipline is."

"Devil of a boy, how logical that is!" grumbled D'Artagnan.

"You approve of it, do you not?"

"Yes, instead of passing into the street, where that idiot is waiting
for me, I will slip quietly out at the back. I have a horse in the
stable, and a good one. I will ride him to death; my means permit me
to do so, and by killing one horse after another, I shall arrive at
Boulogne in eleven hours; I know the road. Only tell your father one
thing."

"What is that?"

"That is--that the thing he knows about is placed at Planchet's house,
except a fifth, and that--"

"But, my dear D'Artagnan, rest assured that if you fly, two things will
be said of you."

"What are they, my dear friend?"

"The first, that you have been afraid."

"Ah! and who will dare to say that?"

"The king first."