unless
those who remain... Grisart, Grisart, give me to live a single hour
longer."

Grisart approached the dying monk, and made him swallow a few drops, not
of the potion which was still left in the glass, but of the contents of
a small bottle he had upon his person.

"Call the Scotchman!" exclaimed the Franciscan; "call the Bremen
merchant. Call, call quickly. I am dying. I am suffocated."

The confessor darted forward to seek assistance, as if there had been
any human strength which could hold back the hand of death, which was
weighing down the sick man; but, at the threshold of the door, he
found Aramis, who, with his finger on his lips, like the statue of
Harpocrates, the god of silence, by a look motioned him back to the
end of the apartment. The physician and the confessor, after having
consulted each other by looks, made a movement as if to push Aramis
aside, who, however, with two signs of the cross, each made in a
different manner, transfixed them both in their places.

"A chief!" they both murmured.

Aramis slowly advanced into the room where the dying man was struggling
against the first attack of the agony which had seized him. As for the
Franciscan, whether owing to the effect of the elixir, or whether the
appearance of Aramis had restored his strength, he made a movement, and
his eyes glaring, his mouth half open, and his hair damp with sweat, sat
up upon the bed. Aramis felt that the air of the room was stifling; the
windows were closed; the fire was burning upon the hearth; a pair of
candles of yellow wax were guttering down in the copper candlesticks,
and still further increased, by their thick smoke, the temperature of
the room. Aramis opened the window, and fixing upon the dying man a
look full of intelligence and respect, said to him: "Monseigneur, pray
forgive my coming in this manner, before you summoned me, but your state
alarms me, and I thought you might possibly die before you had seen me,
for I am but the sixth upon your list."

The dying man started and looked at the list.

"You are, therefore, he who was formerly called Aramis, and since, the
Chevalier d'Herblay? You are the bishop of Vannes?"

"Yes, my lord."

"I know you, I have seen you."

"At the last jubilee, we were with the Holy Father together."

"Yes, yes, I remember; and you place yourself on the list of
candidates?"

"Monseigneur, I have heard it said that the order required to become
possessed of a great state s