l, Athos, do you mean by the royal house?" stammered
D'Artagnan. "You don't mean that you, a well-informed and sensible man,
can place any faith in the nonsense written by an idiot?"

"I do believe in it."

"With so much the more reason, my dear chevalier, from your having
orders to kill all those who do believe in it," said Raoul.

"That is because," replied the captain of the musketeers--"because every
calumny, however absurd it may be, has the almost certain chance of
becoming popular."

"No, D'Artagnan," replied Athos, promptly; "but because the king is not
willing that the secret of his family should transpire among the people,
and cover with shame the executioners of the son of Louis XIII."

"Do not talk in such a childish manner, Athos, or I shall begin to think
you have lost your senses. Besides, explain to me how it is possible
Louis XIII. should have a son in the Isle of Sainte-Marguerite."

"A son whom you have brought hither masked, in a fishing-boat," said
Athos. "Why not?"

D'Artagnan was brought to a pause.

"Oh!" said he; "whence do you know that a fishing-boat--?"

"Brought you to Sainte-Marguerite's with the carriage containing
the prisoner--with a prisoner whom you styled monseigneur. Oh! I
am acquainted with all that," resumed the comte. D'Artagnan bit his
mustache.

"If it were true," said he, "that I had brought hither in a boat and
with a carriage a masked prisoner, nothing proves that this prisoner
must be a prince--a prince of the house of France."

"Ask Aramis such riddles," replied Athos, coolly.

"Aramis," cried the musketeer, quite at a stand. "Have you seen Aramis?"

"After his discomfiture at Vaux, yes; I have seen Aramis, a fugitive,
pursued, bewildered, ruined; and Aramis has told me enough to make me
believe in the complaints this unfortunate young prince cut upon the
bottom of the plate."

D'Artagnan's head sunk on his breast in some confusion. "This is the
way," said he, "in which God turns to nothing that which men call
wisdom! A fine secret must that be of which twelve or fifteen persons
hold the tattered fragments! Athos, cursed be the chance which has
brought you face to face with me in this affair! for now--"

"Well," said Athos, with his customary mild severity, "is your secret
lost because I know it? Consult your memory, my friend. Have I not borne
secrets heavier than this?"

"You have never borne one so dangerous," replied D'Artagnan, in a tone
of sadness.