"How you say the word! What a serious face!"

"Eh! but the occasion is worthy of it. Listen to me. I have a very good
recommendation to tender you."

"I am all attention, Monsieur d'Artagnan."

"You will go and inform your father of my departure."

"Your departure?"

"Pardieu! You will tell him that I am gone into England; and that I am
living in my little country-house."

"In England, you!--And the king's orders?"

"You get more and more silly: do you imagine that I am going to
the Louvre, to place myself at the disposal of that little crowned
wolf-cub?"

"The king a wolf-cub? Why, monsieur le chevalier, you are mad!"

"On the contrary, I never was so sane. You do not know what he wants to
do with me, this worthy son of Louis le Juste!--But, Mordioux! that
is policy. He wishes to ensconce me snugly in the Bastile--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 at 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 your