d sound?" asked the host.

"Oh, yes! Perfectly safe and sound, my good host; and I wish to know
what has become of our young man."

"He is better," said the host, "he fainted quite away."

"Indeed!" said the gentleman.

"But before he fainted, he collected all his strength to challenge you,
and to defy you while challenging you."

"Why, this fellow must be the devil in person!" cried the stranger.

"Oh, no, your Excellency, he is not the devil," replied the host, with
a grin of contempt; "for during his fainting we rummaged his valise and
found nothing but a clean shirt and eleven crowns--which however, did
not prevent his saying, as he was fainting, that if such a thing had
happened in Paris, you should have cause to repent of it at a later
period."

"Then," said the stranger coolly, "he must be some prince in disguise."

"I have told you this, good sir," resumed the host, "in order that you
may be on your guard."

"Did he name no one in his passion?"

"Yes; he struck his pocket and said, 'We shall see what Monsieur de
Treville will think of this insult offered to his protege.'"

"Monsieur de Treville?" said the stranger, becoming attentive, "he
put his hand upon his pocket while pronouncing the name of Monsieur de
Treville? Now, my dear host, while your young man was insensible, you
did not fail, I am quite sure, to ascertain what that pocket contained.
What was there in it?"

"A letter addressed to Monsieur de Treville, captain of the Musketeers."

"Indeed!"

"Exactly as I have the honor to tell your Excellency."

The host, who was not endowed with great perspicacity, did not observe
the expression which his words had given to the physiognomy of the
stranger. The latter rose from the front of the window, upon the sill
of which he had leaned with his elbow, and knitted his brow like a man
disquieted.

"The devil!" murmured he, between his teeth. "Can Treville have set this
Gascon upon me? He is very young; but a sword thrust is a sword thrust,
whatever be the age of him who gives it, and a youth is less to be
suspected than an older man," and the stranger fell into a reverie
which lasted some minutes. "A weak obstacle is sometimes sufficient to
overthrow a great design.

"Host," said he, "could you not contrive to get rid of this frantic boy
for me? In conscience, I cannot kill him; and yet," added he, with a
coldly menacing expression, "he annoys me. Where is he?"

"In my wife's chamber, on the