it fall."

"Oh ho! you take it up that way, do you, Master Gascon? Well, I will
teach you how to behave yourself."

"And I will send you back to your pulpit, Master Priest. Draw, if you
please, and instantly--"

"Not so, if you please, my good friend; not here, at least. Do you not
see that we are opposite Aiguillon House, full of the Cardinal's
creatures? How do I know that it is not his Eminence who has honored
you with the commission to bring him in my head? Now, I entertain an
absurd partiality for my head, it seems to suit my shoulders so
finely. I have no objection to killing you, you may be sure, but
quietly, in a snug, distant spot, where you will not be able to boast
of your death to anybody."

"I agree, but don't be too confident; and take away your
handkerchief--whether it belongs to you or somebody else, perhaps you
may stand in need of it to bandage up a wound. As a Gascon, I don't
put off engagements for prudence's sake."

"Prudence is a virtue useless enough to musketeers, I know, but
indispensable to churchmen; and as I am only a temporary musketeer, I
hold it best to be prudent. At two o'clock I shall have the honor of
expecting you at Treville's. There I will point out the best place and
time to you."

The two bowed and separated. Aramis went up the street which led to
the Luxembourg; while D'Artagnan, seeing that the appointed hour was
coming near, took the road to the Carmes-Deschaux, saying to himself,
"I certainly cannot hope to come out of these scrapes alive; but if I
am doomed to be killed, it will be by a royal musketeer."

THE DEFENSE OF THE BASTION SAINT-GERVAIS

From 'The Three Musketeers'

When D'Artagnan arrived, he found his three friends all together.
Athos was thinking deeply, Porthos was twirling his mustache, and
Aramis was reading his prayers out of a beautiful little book bound in
blue velvet.

"My faith, gentlemen!" exclaimed he, "I hope that what you have to
tell me is very important, or I shall owe you a grudge for dragging
me here, out of my bed, after a whole night passed in taking and
dismantling a bastion! Ah, it is a thousand pities you were not there!
It was warm work!"

"We were somewhere else, where it was not very cold either," replied
Porthos, giving his mustache another twist....

"Aramis," said Athos, "didn't you breakfast the other day at
Parpaillot's?"

"Yes."

"Were you comfortable there?"

"No, I did not like it at all. It was a fast d