below it.

The plan was to pass through the hole into the loft, and cut out from
below a piece of the flooring of the king's room, so as to form a kind
of trap-door. The king was to escape through this on the following
night, and, hidden by the black covering of the scaffold, was then to
change his dress for that of a workman, and so pass the sentinels on
duty, and reach the skiff that was waiting for him at Greenwich.

At nine o'clock in the morning Aramis, this time in attendance on Bishop
Juxon, was once more in the king's room.

"Sire," he said, "you are saved! The London executioner has vanished,
and there is no executioner nearer at hand than Bristol. The Count de la
Fere is two feet below you; take the poker from the fireplace, and
strike three times on the floor. He will answer you. He has the path
ready for your majesty to escape by."

The king did as Aramis suggested, and in reply came three dull knocks
from below.

"The Count de la Fere," said Aramis.

All was ready; nothing as far as D'Artagnan and Athos could see, had
been overlooked; twenty-four hours hence would see the king beyond the
reach of his adversaries.

And then just as Charles had satisfied himself that his life was saved,
a Parliamentary officer and a file of soldiers entered the king's room
to announce his immediate execution.

"Then it is for to-day?" asked the king.

"Were not you warned that it was to take place this morning?"

"Then I must die like a common criminal by the hand of the London
executioner?"

"The London executioner has disappeared, but a man has offered his
services instead. The execution will, therefore, take place at the
appointed hour."

A fanatical Puritan, nephew of Lord de Winter--whom he slew at
Newcastle--and a trusted lieutenant of Cromwell's did the work of the
headsman, and upon Athos, waiting in concealment beneath the scaffold,
fell drops of the king's blood.

When all was over the four hastened away in deep dejection to the skiff
at Greenwich, and so to France. But when they had landed at Dunkirk it
was plain to D'Artagnan that their troubles were not yet at an end.

"Porthos and I were sent by Cardinal Mazarin to fight for Cromwell;
instead of fighting for Cromwell, we have served Charles I.; that's not
the same thing at all."

However, D'Artagnan and Porthos, on their return to Paris, rendered such
signal service to Mazarin and to the queen, by guarding them from the
violence of the mob, a