in the slightest degree in the world discuss the question
with you, whether you would not be ruined in endeavoring to save me. I
should have done precisely as you propose if flight had been part of
my plan of action; I should, therefore, have accepted from you what,
without any doubt, you would have accepted from me. No! I know you too
well even to breathe a word upon the subject."

"Ah! if you would only let me do it," said D'Artagnan, "what a dance we
would give his most gracious majesty!"

"Still he is the king; do not forget that, my dear friend."

"Oh! that is all the same to me; and king though he be, I would plainly
tell him, 'Sire, imprison, exile, kill every one in France and Europe;
order me to arrest and poniard even whom you like--even were it
Monsieur, your own brother; but do not touch one of the four musketeers,
or if so, _mordioux!_'"

"My dear friend," replied Athos, with perfect calmness, "I should like
to persuade you of one thing; namely, that I wish to be arrested; that I
desire above all things that my arrest should take place."

D'Artagnan made a slight movement of his shoulders.

"Nay, I wish it, I repeat, more than anything; if you were to let me
escape, it would be only to return of my own accord, and constitute
myself a prisoner. I wish to prove to this young man, who is dazzled
by the power and splendor of his crown, that he can be regarded as the
first and chiefest among men only on the one condition of his proving
himself to be the most generous and the wisest. He may punish me,
imprison, torture me, it matters not. He abuses his opportunities, and
I wish him to learn the bitterness of remorse, while Heaven teaches him
what chastisement is."

"Well, well," replied D'Artagnan, "I know only too well that, when you
have once said, 'no,' you mean 'no.' I do not insist any longer; you
wish to go to the Bastile?"

"I do wish to go there."

"Let us go, then! To the Bastile!" cried D'Artagnan to the coachman.
And throwing himself back in the carriage, he gnawed the ends of his
mustache with a fury which, for Athos, who knew him well, signified a
resolution either already taken or in course of formation. A profound
silence ensued in the carriage, which continued to roll on, but neither
faster nor slower than before. Athos took the musketeer by the hand.

"You are not angry with me, D'Artagnan?" he said.

"I!--oh, no! certainly not; of course not. What you do for heroism, I
should have d