! I warn you."

"But, monsieur, if I am a restraint upon you," said the officer,
timidly, and almost faintly, "it is my duty which--"

"Monsieur, you have had the misfortune, either you or those that sent
you, to insult me. It is done. I cannot seek redress from those who
employ you,--they are unknown to me, or are at too great a distance. But
you are under my hand, and I swear that if you make one step behind me
when I raise my feet to go up to those gentlemen, I swear to you by my
name, I will cleave your head in two with my sword, and pitch you into
the water. Oh! it will happen! it will happen! I have only been six
times angry in my life, monsieur, and all five preceding times _I killed
my man_."

The officer did not stir; he became pale under this terrible threat, but
replied with simplicity, "Monsieur, you are wrong in acting against my
orders."

Porthos and Aramis, mute and trembling at the top of the parapet, cried
to the musketeer, "Good D'Artagnan, take care!"

D'Artagnan made them a sign to keep silence, raised his foot with
ominous calmness to mount the stair, and turned round, sword in hand,
to see if the officer followed him. The officer made a sign of the cross
and stepped up. Porthos and Aramis, who knew their D'Artagnan, uttered
a cry, and rushed down to prevent the blow they thought they already
heard. But D'Artagnan passed his sword into his left hand,--

"Monsieur," said he to the officer, in an agitated voice, "you are a
brave man. You will all the better comprehend what I am going to say to
you now."

"Speak, Monsieur d'Artagnan, speak," replied the officer.

"These gentlemen we have just seen, and against whom you have orders,
are my friends."

"I know they are, monsieur."

"You can understand whether or not I ought to act towards them as your
instructions prescribe."

"I understand your reserve."

"Very well; permit me, then, to converse with them without a witness."

"Monsieur d'Artagnan, if I yield to your request, if I do that which
you beg me, I break my word; but if I do not do it, I disoblige you. I
prefer the one dilemma to the other. Converse with your friends, and do
not despise me, monsieur, for doing this for _your_ sake, whom I esteem
and honor; do not despise me for committing for you, and you alone, an
unworthy act." D'Artagnan, much agitated, threw his arm round the
neck of the young man, and then went up to his friends. The officer,
enveloped in his cloak, sat dow