he wager, were anxious to know how they would come out of
it. But when once they passed the line of circumvallation and found
themselves in the open plain, d'Artagnan, who was completely ignorant of
what was going forward, thought it was time to demand an explanation.

"And now, my dear Athos," said he, "do me the kindness to tell me where
we are going?"

"Why, you see plainly enough we are going to the bastion."

"But what are we going to do there?"

"You know well that we go to breakfast there."

"But why did we not breakfast at the Parpaillot?"

"Because we have very important matters to communicate to one another,
and it was impossible to talk five minutes in that inn without being
annoyed by all those importunate fellows, who keep coming in, saluting
you, and addressing you. Here at least," said Athos, pointing to the
bastion, "they will not come and disturb us."

"It appears to me," said d'Artagnan, with that prudence which allied
itself in him so naturally with excessive bravery, "that we could have
found some retired place on the downs or the seashore."

"Where we should have been seen all four conferring together, so that at
the end of a quarter of an hour the cardinal would have been informed by
his spies that we were holding a council."

"Yes," said Aramis, "Athos is right: ANIMADVERTUNTUR IN DESERTIS."

"A desert would not have been amiss," said Porthos; "but it behooved us
to find it."

"There is no desert where a bird cannot pass over one's head, where a
fish cannot leap out of the water, where a rabbit cannot come out of its
burrow, and I believe that bird, fish, and rabbit each becomes a spy of
the cardinal. Better, then, pursue our enterprise; from which, besides,
we cannot retreat without shame. We have made a wager--a wager which
could not have been foreseen, and of which I defy anyone to divine the
true cause. We are going, in order to win it, to remain an hour in the
bastion. Either we shall be attacked, or not. If we are not, we shall
have all the time to talk, and nobody will hear us--for I guarantee
the walls of the bastion have no ears; if we are, we will talk of our
affairs just the same. Moreover, in defending ourselves, we shall cover
ourselves with glory. You see that everything is to our advantage."

"Yes," said d'Artagnan; "but we shall indubitably attract a ball."

"Well, my dear," replied Athos, "you know well that the balls most to be
dreaded are not from the enemy."

"B