back!"

"Unfortunately, my lord, I am acquainted with nobody here but your
grace, and if I should no longer find you, or if you should have
forgotten me in your greatness?"

"Listen to me, Monsieur d'Artagnan," replied Monk; "you are a superior
man, full of intelligence and courage; you deserve all the good fortune
this world can bring you; come with me into Scotland, and, I swear to
you, I shall arrange for you a fate which all may envy."

"Oh! my lord, that is impossible. At present I have a sacred duty to
perform; I have to watch over your glory, I have to prevent a low jester
from tarnishing in the eyes of our contemporaries--who knows? in the
eyes of posterity--the splendor of your name."

"Of posterity, Monsieur d'Artagnan?"

"Doubtless. It is necessary, as regards posterity, that all the
details of that history should remain a mystery; for, admit that this
unfortunate history of the deal box should spread, and it should be
asserted that you had not re-established the king loyally, and of
your own free will, but in consequence of a compromise entered into at
Scheveningen between you two. It would be vain for me to declare how the
thing came about, for though I know I should not be believed, it would
be said that I had received my part of the cake, and was eating it."

Monk knitted his brow.--"Glory, honor, probity!" said he, "you are but
empty words."

"Mist!" replied D'Artagnan; "nothing but mist, through which nobody can
see clearly."

"Well, then, go to France, my dear Monsieur d'Artagnan," said Monk; "go,
and to render England more attractive and agreeable to you, accept a
remembrance of me.

"What now?" thought D'Artagnan.

"I have on the banks of the Clyde," continued Monk, "a little house in
a grove, cottage as it is called here. To this house are attached a
hundred acres of land. Accept it as a souvenir."

"Oh my lord!----"

"Faith! you will be there in your own home, and that will be the place
of refuge you spoke of just now."

"For me to be obliged to your lordship to such an extent! Really, your
grace, I am ashamed."

"Not at all, not at all, monsieur," replied Monk, with an arch smile;
"it is I who shall be obliged to you. And," pressing the hand of the
musketeer, "I shall go and draw up the deed of gift,"--and he left the
room.

D'Artagnan looked at him as he went out with something of a pensive and
even an agitated air.

"After all," said he, "he is a brave man. It is only a sad