n return and inform me. I will wait here."

"Will your majesty deign to give me some description of the carriage I
am charged to discover?"

"A carriage in which you will see two ladies, and probably their
attendants likewise."

"Sire, I should not wish to make a mistake; is there no other sign by
which I may know this carriage?"

"It will bear, in all probability, the arms of monsieur le cardinal."

"That is sufficient, sire," replied the officer, fully instructed in the
object of his search. He put his horse to the trot, and rode sharply on
in the direction pointed out by the king. But he had scarcely gone five
hundred paces when he saw four mules and then a carriage, loom up from
behind a little hill. Behind this carriage came another. It required
only one glance to assure him that these were the equipages he was in
search of; he therefore turned his bridle, and rode back to the king.

"Sire," said he, "here are the carriages. The first, as you said,
contains two ladies with their femmes de chambre; the second contains
the footmen, provisions, and necessaries."

"That is well," replied the king in an agitated voice. "Please to go
and tell those ladies that a cavalier of the court wishes to pay his
respects to them alone."

The officer set off at a gallop. "Mordioux!" said he, as he rode on,
"here is a new and an honorable employment, I hope! I complained of
being nobody. I am the king's confidant: that is enough to make a
musketeer burst with pride."

He approached the carriage, and delivered his message gallantly and
intelligently. There were two ladies in the carriage: one of great
beauty, although rather thin; the other less favored by nature, but
lively, graceful, and uniting in the delicate lines of her brow all the
signs of a strong will. Her eyes, animated and piercing in particular,
spoke more eloquently than all the amorous phrases in fashion in those
days of gallantry. It was to her D'Artagnan addressed himself, without
fear of being mistaken, although the other was, as we have said, the
more handsome of the two.

"Madame," said he, "I am the lieutenant of the musketeers, and there
is on the road a horseman who awaits you, and is desirous of paying his
respects to you."

At these words, the effect of which he watched closely, the lady with
the black eyes uttered a cry of joy, leant out of the carriage window,
and seeing the cavalier approaching, held out her arms, exclaiming:

"Ah, my dear si