t mine is of the number,--a real satisfaction in
the assurance that all is lost, and the time is come to yield."

"Oh, I hope," said Athos, "that your majesty is not come to that
extremity."

"To say so, my lord count, to endeavor to revive hope in my heart, you
must have ill understood what I have just told you. I came to Blois
to ask of my brother Louis the alms of a million, with which I had the
hopes of re-establishing my affairs; and my brother Louis has refused
me. You see, then, plainly, that all is lost."

"Will your majesty permit me to express a contrary opinion?"

"How is that, count? Do you think my heart of so low an order that I do
not know how to face my position?"

"Sire, I have always seen that it was in desperate positions that
suddenly the great turns of fortune have taken place."

"Thank you, count, it is some comfort to meet with a heart like yours,
that is to say, sufficiently trustful in God and in monarchy, never to
despair of a royal fortune, however low it may be fallen. Unfortunately,
my dear count, your words are like those remedies they call 'sovereign,'
and which, though able to cure curable wounds or diseases, fail against
death. Thank you for your perseverance in consoling me, count, thanks
for your devoted remembrance, but I know in what I must trust--nothing
will save me now. And see, my friend, I was so convinced, that I was
taking the route of exile with my old Parry; I was returning to devour
my poignant griefs in the little hermitage offered me by Holland. There,
believe me, count, all will soon be over, and death will come quickly,
it is called so often by this body, eaten up by its soul, and by this
soul, which aspires to heaven."

"Your majesty has a mother, a sister, and brothers; your majesty is the
head of the family, and ought, therefore, to ask a long life of God,
instead of imploring Him for a prompt death. Your majesty is an exile,
a fugitive, but you have right on your side; you ought to aspire to
combats, dangers, business, and not to rest in heavens."

"Count," said Charles II., with a smile of indescribable sadness, "have
you ever heard of a king who reconquered his kingdom with one servant
of the age of Parry, and with three hundred crowns which that servant
carried in his purse?"

"No, sire; but I have heard--and that more than once--that a dethroned
king has recovered his kingdom with a firm will, perseverance, some
friends, and a million skillfully employ