benefit was discharged. As an ingrate or an egotist, would
you, then, have better loved or served me?”
“Sire!”
“We will say no more about it, monsieur; it would only
create in you too many regrets, and me too much pain.”
D’Artagnan was not convinced. The young king, in adopting a
tone of hauteur with him, did not forward his purpose.
“You have since reflected?” resumed Louis.
“Upon what, sire?” asked D’Artagnan, politely.
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“Why, upon all that I have said to you, monsieur.”
“Yes, sire, no doubt —- ”
“And you have only waited for an opportunity of retracting
your words?”
“Sire!”
“You hesitate, it seems.”
“I do not understand what your majesty did me the honor to
say to me.”
Louis’s brow became cloudy.
“Have the goodness to excuse me, sire; my understanding is
particularly thick; things do not penetrate it without
difficulty; but it is true, when once they get in, they
remain there.”
“Yes, yes; you appear to have a memory.”
“Almost as good a one as your majesty’s.”
“Then give me quickly one solution. My time is valuable.
What have you been doing since your discharge?”
“Making my fortune, sire.”
“The expression is crude, Monsieur d’Artagnan.”
“Your majesty takes it in bad part, certainly. I entertain
nothing but the profoundest respect for the king; and if I
have been impolite, which might be excused by my long
sojourn in camps and barracks, your majesty is too much
above me to be offended at a word that innocently escapes
from a soldier.”
“In fact, I know you performed a brilliant action in
England, monsieur. I only regret that you have broken your
promise.”
“I!” cried D’Artagnan.
“Doubtless. You engaged your word not to serve any other
prince on quitting my service. Now it was for King Charles
II. that you undertook the marvelous carrying off of M.
Monk.”
“Pardon me, sire, it was for myself.”
“And did you succeed?”
“Like the captains of the fifteenth century, coups-de-main
and adventures.”
“What do you call succeeding? — a fortune?”
“A hundred thousand crowns, sire, which I now possess —
that is, in one week three times as much money as I ever had
in fifty years.”
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“It is a handsome sum. But you are ambitious, I perceive.”
“I, sire? The quarter of that would be a treasure; and I
swear to you I have no thought of augmenting it.”
“What! you contemplate remaining idle?”
“Yes, sire.”
“You mean to drop the sword?”
“That I have already done.”
“Impossible, Monsieur d’Artagnan,” said Louis, firmly.
“But, sire —- ”
“Well?”
“And why, sire?”
“Because it is my wish you should not!” said the young
prince, in a voice so stern and imperious that D’Artagnan
evinced surprise and even uneasiness.
“Will your majesty allow me one word of reply?” said he.
“Speak.”
“I formed that resolution when I was poor and destitute.”
“So be it. Go on.”
“Now, when by my energy I have acquired a comfortable means
of subsistence, would your majesty despoil me of my liberty?
Your majesty would condemn me to the lowest, when I have
gained the highest?”
“Who gave you permission, monsieur to fathom my designs, or
to reckon with me?” replied Louis, in a voice almost angry;
“who told you what I shall do or what you will yourself do?”
“Sire,” said the musketeer, quietly, “as far as I see,
freedom is not the order of the conversation, as it was on
the day we came to an explanation at Blois.”
“No, monsieur; everything is changed.”
“I tender your majesty my sincere compliments upon that, but
—- ”
“But you don’t believe it?”
“I am not a great statesman, and yet I have my eye upon
affairs; it seldom fails; now, I do not see exactly as your
majesty does, sire. The reign of Mazarin is over, but that
of the financiers is begun. They have the money; your
majesty will not often see much of it. To live under the paw
of these hungry wolves is hard for a man who reckoned upon
independence.”
At this moment some one scratched at the door of the