recollect what it was he used to dispute about with the curate of
Montdidier and the superior of the Jesuits, when we were at Crevecoeur;
I should know what doctrine he leans to and I should glean from that
what saint he has adopted as his patron.

"Well, suppose I go back to the cardinal and ask him for a passport into
all the convents one can find, even into the nunneries? It would be
a curious idea, and maybe I should find my friend under the name of
Achilles. But, no! I should lose myself in the cardinal's opinion. Great
people only thank you for doing the impossible; what's possible, they
say, they can effect themselves, and they are right. But let us wait a
little and reflect. I received a letter from him, the dear fellow,
in which he even asked me for some small service, which, in fact, I
rendered him. Yes, yes; but now what did I do with that letter?"

D'Artagnan thought a moment and then went to the wardrobe in which hung
his old clothes. He looked for his doublet of the year 1648 and as he
had orderly habits, he found it hanging on its nail. He felt in the
pocket and drew from it a paper; it was the letter of Aramis:

"Monsieur D'Artagnan: You know that I have had a quarrel with a certain
gentleman, who has given me an appointment for this evening in the
Place Royale. As I am of the church, and the affair might injure me if
I should share it with any other than a sure friend like you, I write to
beg that you will serve me as second.

"You will enter by the Rue Neuve Sainte Catherine; under the second lamp
on the right you will find your adversary. I shall be with mine under
the third.

"Wholly yours,

"Aramis."

D'Artagnan tried to recall his remembrances. He had gone to the
rendezvous, had encountered there the adversary indicated, whose name
he had never known, had given him a pretty sword-stroke on the arm, then
had gone toward Aramis, who at the same time came to meet him, having
already finished his affair. "It is over," Aramis had said. "I think I
have killed the insolent fellow. But, dear friend, if you ever need me
you know that I am entirely devoted to you." Thereupon Aramis had given
him a clasp of the hand and had disappeared under the arcades.

So, then, he no more knew where Aramis was than where Athos and Porthos
were, and the affair was becoming a matter of great perplexity, when he
fancied he heard a pane of glass break in his room window. He thought
directly of his bag and ru