he reproach that you were discontented, you received in reply
a promise:--'Wait.'--Is not that true?"

"Yes, sire, as true as what I told you."

"You answered me, 'Hereafter! No, now, immediately.' Do not excuse
yourself, I tell you. It was natural, but you had no charity for your
poor prince, Monsieur d'Artagnan."

"Sire! charity for a king, on the part of a poor soldier!"

"You understand me very well; you knew that I stood in need of it; you
knew very well that I was not master; you knew very well that my hope
was in the future. Now, you answered me when I spoke of that future, 'My
discharge,--and that directly.'"

"That is true," murmured D'Artagnan, biting his mustache.

"You did not flatter me when I was in distress," added Louis.

"But," said D'Artagnan, raising his head nobly, "if I did not flatter
your majesty when poor, neither did I betray you. I have shed my blood
for nothing; I have watched like a dog at a door, knowing full well that
neither bread nor bone would be thrown to me. I, although poor likewise,
asked nothing of your majesty but the discharge you speak of."

"I know you are a brave man, but I was a young man, and you ought to
have had some indulgence for me. What had you to reproach the king
with?--that he left King Charles II. without assistance?--let us say
further--that he did not marry Mademoiselle de Mancini?" When saying
these words, the king fixed upon the musketeer a searching look.

"Ah! ah!" thought the latter, "he is doing far more than remembering, he
divines. The devil!"

"Your sentence," continued Louis, "fell upon the king and fell upon the
man. But, Monsieur d'Artagnan, that weakness, for you considered it
a weakness?"--D'Artagnan made no reply--"you reproached me also with
regard to monsieur, the defunct cardinal. Now, monsieur le cardinal,
did he not bring me up, did he not support me?--elevating himself
and supporting himself at the same time, I admit; but the benefit was
discharged. As an ingrate or an egotist, would you, then, have better
loved or served me?"

"Sire!"

"We will say no more about it, monsieur; it would only create in you too
many regrets, and me too much pain."

D'Artagnan was not convinced. The young king, in adopting a tone of
hauteur with him, did not forward his purpose.

"You have since reflected?" resumed Louis.

"Upon what, sire?" asked D'Artagnan, politely.

"Why, upon all that I have said to you, monsieur."

"Yes, sire, no doubt--