teers, whatever the
said Chevalier d'Artagnan may demand of my property. On condition that
M. le Vicomte de Bragelonne do pay a good pension to M. le Chevalier
d'Herblay, my friend, if he should need it in exile. I leave to my
intendant Mousqueton all of my clothes, of city, war, or chase, to the
number of forty-seven suits, in the assurance that he will wear them
till they are worn out, for the love of and in remembrance of his
master. Moreover, I bequeath to M. le Vicomte de Bragelonne my old
servant and faithful friend Mousqueton, already named, providing that
the said vicomte shall so act that Mousqueton shall declare, when dying,
he has never ceased to be happy."

On hearing these words, Mousqueton bowed, pale and trembling; his
shoulders shook convulsively; his countenance, compressed by a frightful
grief, appeared from between his icy hands, and the spectators saw him
stagger and hesitate, as if, though wishing to leave the hall, he did
not know the way.

"Mousqueton, my good friend," said D'Artagnan, "go and make your
preparations. I will take you with me to Athos's house, whither I shall
go on leaving Pierrefonds."

Mousqueton made no reply. He scarcely breathed, as if everything in that
hall would from that time be foreign. He opened the door, and slowly
disappeared.

The procureur finished his reading, after which the greater part
of those who had come to hear the last will of Porthos dispersed by
degrees, many disappointed, but all penetrated with respect. As
for D'Artagnan, thus left alone, after having received the formal
compliments of the procureur, he was lost in admiration of the wisdom of
the testator, who had so judiciously bestowed his wealth upon the most
necessitous and the most worthy, with a delicacy that neither nobleman
nor courtier could have displayed more kindly. When Porthos enjoined
Raoul de Bragelonne to give D'Artagnan all that he would ask, he knew
well, our worthy Porthos, that D'Artagnan would ask or take nothing; and
in case he did demand anything, none but himself could say what. Porthos
left a pension to Aramis, who, if he should be inclined to ask too much,
was checked by the example of D'Artagnan; and that word _exile_, thrown
out by the testator, without apparent intention, was it not the mildest,
most exquisite criticism upon that conduct of Aramis which had brought
about the death of Porthos? But there was no mention of Athos in the
testament of the dead. Could the latte