e Spanish doubloons, or even gold crowns," thought
D'Artagnan, "we shall yet be able to do business together." He saluted
the cardinal and plunged the bag into the depths of an immense pocket.

"Well, then, all is settled; you are to set off," said the cardinal.

"Yes, my lord."

"Apropos, what are the names of your friends?"

"The Count de la Fere, formerly styled Athos; Monsieur du Vallon,
whom we used to call Porthos; the Chevalier d'Herblay, now the Abbe
d'Herblay, whom we styled Aramis----"

The cardinal smiled.

"Younger sons," he said, "who enlisted in the musketeers under feigned
names in order not to lower their family names. Long swords but light
purses. Was that it?"

"If, God willing, these swords should be devoted to the service of your
eminence," said D'Artagnan, "I shall venture to express a wish, which
is, that in its turn the purse of your eminence may become light and
theirs heavy--for with these three men your eminence may rouse all
Europe if you like."

"These Gascons," said the cardinal, laughing, "almost beat the Italians
in effrontery."

"At all events," answered D'Artagnan, with a smile almost as crafty as
the cardinal's, "they beat them when they draw their swords."

He then withdrew, and as he passed into the courtyard he stopped near a
lamp and dived eagerly into the bag of money.

"Crown pieces only--silver pieces! I suspected it. Ah! Mazarin! Mazarin!
thou hast no confidence in me! so much the worse for thee, for harm may
come of it!"

Meanwhile the cardinal was rubbing his hands in great satisfaction.

"A hundred pistoles! a hundred pistoles! for a hundred pistoles I have
discovered a secret for which Richelieu would have paid twenty thousand
crowns; without reckoning the value of that diamond"--he cast a
complacent look at the ring, which he had kept, instead of restoring to
D'Artagnan--"which is worth, at least, ten thousand francs."

He returned to his room, and after depositing the ring in a casket
filled with brilliants of every sort, for the cardinal was a connoisseur
in precious stones, he called to Bernouin to undress him, regardless of
the noises of gun-fire that, though it was now near midnight, continued
to resound through Paris.

In the meantime D'Artagnan took his way toward the Rue Tiquetonne, where
he lived at the Hotel de la Chevrette.

We will explain in a few words how D'Artagnan had been led to choose
that place of residence.

6. D'Artagnan in