this up," he said to himself; and then speaking
aloud, added,--"Well, my dear governor shall we now arrange our little
accounts?"

"I am at your orders, my lord; but tell me beforehand, my lord, whether
you will do me the honor to breakfast with me as usual?"

"Very willingly, indeed."

"That's well," said Baisemeaux, as he struck the bell before him three
times.

"What does that mean?" inquired Aramis.

"That I have some one to breakfast with me, and that preparations are to
be made accordingly."

"And you rang thrice. Really, my dear governor, I begin to think you are
acting ceremoniously with me."

"No, indeed. Besides, the least I can do is to receive you in the best
way I can."

"But why so?"

"Because not even a prince could have done what you have done for me."

"Nonsense! nonsense!"

"Nay, I assure you--"

"Let us speak of other matters," said Aramis. "Or rather, tell me how
your affairs here are getting on."

"Not over well."

"The deuce!"

"M. de Mazarin was not hard enough."

"Yes, I see; you require a government full of suspicion--like that of
the old cardinal, for instance."

"Yes; matters went on better under him. The brother of his 'gray
eminence' made his fortune here."

"Believe me, my dear governor," said Aramis, drawing closer to
Baisemeaux, "a young king is well worth an old cardinal. Youth has
its suspicions, its fits of anger, its prejudices, as old age has its
hatreds, its precautions, and its fears. Have you paid your three years'
profits to Louvidre and Tremblay?"

"Most certainly I have."

"So that you have nothing more to give them than the fifty thousand
francs I have brought with me?"

"Nothing."

"Have you not saved anything, then?"

"My lord, in giving the fifty thousand francs of my own to these
gentlemen, I assure you that I gave them everything I gain. I told M.
d'Artagnan so yesterday evening."

"Ah!" said Aramis, whose eyes sparkled for a moment, but became
immediately afterwards as unmoved as before; "so you have been to see my
old friend D'Artagnan; how was he?"

"Wonderfully well."

"And what did you say to him, M. de Baisemeaux?"

"I told him," continued the governor, not perceiving his own
thoughtlessness; "I told him that I fed my prisoners too well."

"How many have you?" inquired Aramis, in an indifferent tone of voice.

"Sixty."

"Well, that is a tolerably round number."

"In former times, my lord, there were, during certain years,