n love, or, at least, submit to my slavery and my
obscurity."

"Monseigneur, monseigneur; if you again utter these desperate words--if,
after having received proof of your high birth, you still remain
poor-spirited in body and soul, I will comply with your desire, I will
depart, and renounce forever the service of a master, to whom so eagerly
I came to devote my assistance and my life!"

"Monsieur," cried the prince, "would it not have been better for you to
have reflected, before telling me all that you have done, that you have
broken my heart forever?"

"And so I desire to do, monseigneur."

"To talk to me about power, grandeur, eye, and to prate of thrones! Is
a prison the fit place? You wish to make me believe in splendor, and we
are lying lost in night; you boast of glory, and we are smothering our
words in the curtains of this miserable bed; you give me glimpses of
power absolute whilst I hear the footsteps of the every-watchful jailer
in the corridor--that step which, after all, makes you tremble more than
it does me. To render me somewhat less incredulous, free me from the
Bastile; let me breathe the fresh air; give me my spurs and trusty
sword, then we shall begin to understand each other."

"It is precisely my intention to give you all this, monseigneur, and
more; only, do you desire it?"

"A word more," said the prince. "I know there are guards in every
gallery, bolts to every door, cannon and soldiery at every barrier.
How will you overcome the sentries--spike the guns? How will you break
through the bolts and bars?"

"Monseigneur,--how did you get the note which announced my arrival to
you?"

"You can bribe a jailer for such a thing as a note."

"If we can corrupt one turnkey, we can corrupt ten."

"Well; I admit that it may be possible to release a poor captive from
the Bastile; possible so to conceal him that the king's people shall
not again ensnare him; possible, in some unknown retreat, to sustain the
unhappy wretch in some suitable manner."

"Monseigneur!" said Aramis, smiling.

"I admit that, whoever would do this much for me, would seem more than
mortal in my eyes; but as you tell me I am a prince, brother of the
king, how can you restore me the rank and power which my mother and my
brother have deprived me of? And as, to effect this, I must pass a
life of war and hatred, how can you cause me to prevail in those
combats--render me invulnerable by my enemies? Ah! monsieur, reflect on