deficient in either
virtue or beauty. I was induced to marry her about three years ago,
although she had but very little dowry, because Monsieur Laporte, the
queen's cloak bearer, is her godfather, and befriends her."

"Well, monsieur?" asked d'Artagnan.

"Well!" resumed the citizen, "well, monsieur, my wife was abducted
yesterday morning, as she was coming out of her workroom."

"And by whom was your wife abducted?"

"I know nothing surely, monsieur, but I suspect someone."

"And who is the person whom you suspect?"

"A man who has pursued her a long time."

"The devil!"

"But allow me to tell you, monsieur," continued the citizen, "that I am
convinced that there is less love than politics in all this."

"Less love than politics," replied d'Artagnan, with a reflective air;
"and what do you suspect?"

"I do not know whether I ought to tell you what I suspect."

"Monsieur, I beg you to observe that I ask you absolutely nothing. It
is you who have come to me. It is you who have told me that you had a
secret to confide in me. Act, then, as you think proper; there is still
time to withdraw."

"No, monsieur, no; you appear to be an honest young man, and I will have
confidence in you. I believe, then, that it is not on account of any
intrigues of her own that my wife has been arrested, but because of
those of a lady much greater than herself."

"Ah, ah! Can it be on account of the amours of Madame de Bois-Tracy?"
said d'Artagnan, wishing to have the air, in the eyes of the citizen, of
being posted as to court affairs.

"Higher, monsieur, higher."

"Of Madame d'Aiguillon?"

"Still higher."

"Of Madame de Chevreuse?"

"Of the--" d'Artagnan checked himself.

"Yes, monsieur," replied the terrified citizen, in a tone so low that he
was scarcely audible.

"And with whom?"

"With whom can it be, if not the Duke of--"

"The Duke of--"

"Yes, monsieur," replied the citizen, giving a still fainter intonation
to his voice.

"But how do you know all this?"

"How do I know it?"

"Yes, how do you know it? No half-confidence, or--you understand!"

"I know it from my wife, monsieur--from my wife herself."

"Who learns it from whom?"

"From Monsieur Laporte. Did I not tell you that she was the goddaughter
of Monsieur Laporte, the confidential man of the queen? Well, Monsieur
Laporte placed her near her Majesty in order that our poor queen might
at least have someone in whom she could place confidence, a