ult offered to a brave man, has led me to quit your
majesty's service."

"Monsieur," replied the king, "you still believe that you are living in
an age when kings were, as you complain of having been, under the orders
and at the discretion of their inferiors. You seem to forget that a king
owes an account of his actions to none but God."

"I forget nothing, sire," said the musketeer, wounded by this lesson.
"Besides, I do not see in what an honest man, when he asks of his king
how he has ill-served him, offends him."

"You have ill-served me, monsieur, by siding with my enemies against
me."

"Who are your enemies, sire?"

"The men I sent you to fight."

"Two men the enemies of the whole of your majesty's army! That is
incredible."

"You have no power to judge of my will."

"But I have to judge of my own friendships, sire."

"He who serves his friends does not serve his master."

"I so well understand this, sire, that I have respectfully offered your
majesty my resignation."

"And I have accepted it, monsieur," said the king. "Before being
separated from you I was willing to prove to you that I know how to keep
my word."

"Your majesty has kept more than your word, for your majesty has had me
arrested," said D'Artagnan, with his cold, bantering air; "you did not
promise me that, sire."

The king would not condescend to perceive the pleasantry, and continued,
seriously, "You see, monsieur, to what grave steps your disobedience
forces me."

"My disobedience!" cried D'Artagnan, red with anger.

"It is the mildest term that I can find," pursued the king. "My idea was
to take and punish rebels; was I bound to inquire whether these rebels
were your friends or not?"

"But I was," replied D'Artagnan. "It was a cruelty on your majesty's
part to send me to capture my friends and lead them to your gibbets."

"It was a trial I had to make, monsieur, of pretended servants, who eat
my bread and _should_ defend my person. The trial has succeeded ill,
Monsieur d'Artagnan."

"For one bad servant your majesty loses," said the musketeer, with
bitterness, "there are ten who, on that same day, go through a like
ordeal. Listen to me, sire; I am not accustomed to that service. Mine
is a rebel sword when I am required to do ill. It was ill to send me
in pursuit of two men whose lives M. Fouquet, your majesty's preserver,
implored you to save. Still further, these men were my friends. They did
not attack your majesty, th