ipe to Planchet. I may be besieged in my turn,
and I shall not be sorry for him to be able to let me enjoy the same
advantages with which you gratify your master."

"Lord, monsieur! There is nothing more easy," said Mousqueton, with a
modest air. "One only needs to be sharp, that's all. I was brought up
in the country, and my father in his leisure time was something of a
poacher."

"And what did he do the rest of his time?"

"Monsieur, he carried on a trade which I have always thought
satisfactory."

"Which?"

"As it was a time of war between the Catholics and the Huguenots, and
as he saw the Catholics exterminate the Huguenots and the Huguenots
exterminate the Catholics--all in the name of religion--he adopted a
mixed belief which permitted him to be sometimes Catholic, sometimes a
Huguenot. Now, he was accustomed to walk with his fowling piece on his
shoulder, behind the hedges which border the roads, and when he saw a
Catholic coming alone, the Protestant religion immediately prevailed
in his mind. He lowered his gun in the direction of the traveler; then,
when he was within ten paces of him, he commenced a conversation which
almost always ended by the traveler's abandoning his purse to save his
life. It goes without saying that when he saw a Huguenot coming, he
felt himself filled with such ardent Catholic zeal that he could not
understand how, a quarter of an hour before, he had been able to have
any doubts upon the superiority of our holy religion. For my part,
monsieur, I am Catholic--my father, faithful to his principles, having
made my elder brother a Huguenot."

"And what was the end of this worthy man?" asked d'Artagnan.

"Oh, of the most unfortunate kind, monsieur. One day he was surprised
in a lonely road between a Huguenot and a Catholic, with both of whom
he had before had business, and who both knew him again; so they united
against him and hanged him on a tree. Then they came and boasted of
their fine exploit in the cabaret of the next village, where my brother
and I were drinking."

"And what did you do?" said d'Artagnan.

"We let them tell their story out," replied Mousqueton. "Then, as in
leaving the cabaret they took different directions, my brother went and
hid himself on the road of the Catholic, and I on that of the Huguenot.
Two hours after, all was over; we had done the business of both,
admiring the foresight of our poor father, who had taken the precaution
to bring each of us up i