were accomplishing."

"I had reason to say so, my lord."

"And now you speak to me of the good cause. What do you mean by the
words 'the good cause'? We are defending at this moment, in England,
five or six causes, which does not prevent every one from considering
his own not only as the good cause, but as the best. What is yours,
monsieur? Speak boldly, that we may see if, upon this point, to which
you appear to attach a great importance, we are of the same opinion."

Athos fixed upon Monk one of those penetrating looks which seem to
convey to him to whom they are directed a challenge to conceal a single
one of his thoughts; then, taking off his hat, he began in a solemn
voice, while his interlocutor, with one hand upon his visage, allowed
that long and nervous hand to compress his mustache and beard, while his
vague and melancholy eye wandered about the recesses of the vaults.

CHAPTER 26. Heart and Mind

"My lord," said the Comte de la Fere, "you are a noble Englishman, you
are a loyal man; you are speaking to a noble Frenchman, to a man of
heart. The gold contained in these two casks before us, I have told you
was mine. I was wrong--it is the first lie I have pronounced in my life,
a temporary lie, it is true. This gold is the property of King Charles
II., exiled from his country, driven from his palaces, the orphan at
once of his father and his throne, and deprived of everything, even of
the melancholy happiness of kissing on his knees the stone upon which
the hands of his murderers have written that simple epitaph which will
eternally cry out for vengeance upon them:--'Here lies Charles I.'"

Monk grew slightly pale, and an imperceptible shudder crept over his
skin and raised his gray mustache.

"I," continued Athos, "I, Comte de la Fere, the last, only faithful
friend the poor abandoned prince has left, I have offered him to come
hither to find the man upon whom now depends the fate of royalty and of
England; and I have come, and placed myself under the eye of this man,
and have placed myself naked and unarmed in his hands, saying:--'My
lord, here are the last resources of a prince whom God made your master,
whom his birth made your king; upon you, and you alone, depend his life
and his future. Will you employ this money in consoling England for the
evils it must have suffered from anarchy; that is to say, will you aid,
and if not aid, will you allow King Charles II. to act? You are master,
you a