dinal--the great Cardinal Richelieu, or from the king--Louis XIII.

It was immediately after his interview with M. de Treville that
D'Artagnan, well trained at home as a swordsman, quarrelled with the
three musketeers.

First, on the palace stairs, he ran violently into Athos, who was
suffering from a wounded shoulder.

"Excuse me," said D'Artagnan. "Excuse me, but I am in a hurry."

"You are in a hurry?" said the musketeer, pale as a sheet. "Under that
pretence, you run against me; you say 'Excuse me!' and you think that
sufficient. You are not polite; it is easy to see that you are from the
country."

D'Artagnan had already passed on, but this remark made him stop short.

"However far I may come it is not you, monsieur, who can give me a
lesson in manners, I warn you."

"Perhaps," said Athos, "you are in a hurry now, but you can find me
without running after me. Do you understand me."

"Where, and when?" said D'Artagnan.

"Near the Carmes-Deschaux at noon," replied Athos. "And please do not
keep me waiting, for at a quarter past twelve I will cut off your ears
if you run."

"Good!" cried D'Artagnan. "I will be there at ten minutes to twelve."

At the street gate Porthos was talking with the soldiers on guard.
Between the two there was just room for a man to pass, and D'Artagnan
hurried on, only to find himself enveloped in the long velvet cloak of
Porthos, which the wind had blown out.

"The fellow must be mad," said Porthos, "to run against people in this
manner! Do you always forget your eyes when you happen to be in a
hurry?"

"No," replied D'Artagnan, who, in extricating himself from the cloak,
had observed that the handsome cloth of gold coat worn by Porthos was
only gold in front and plain buff at the back, "no, and thanks to my
eyes, I can see what others cannot see."

"Monsieur," said Porthos angrily, "you stand a chance of getting
chastised if you run against musketeers in this fashion. I shall look
for you, at one o'clock behind the Luxembourg."

"Very well, at one o'clock then," replied D'Artagnan, turning into the
street.

A few minutes later D'Artagnan annoyed Aramis, the third musketeer, who
was chatting with some gentleman of the king's musketeers. As D'Artagnan
came up Aramis accidentally dropped an embroidered pocket-handkerchief
and covered it at once with his foot to prevent observation. D'Artagnan,
conscious of a certain want of politeness in his treatment of Athos and
Porthos,