"Decidedly," said D'Artagnan to himself, "I have struck agood vein. That star which shines once in the life of everyman, which shone for Job and Iris, the most unfortunate ofthe Jews and the poorest of the Greeks, is come at last toshine on me. I will commit no folly, I will take advantageof it; it comes quite late enough to find me reasonable."

He supped that evening, in very good humor, with his friendAthos; he said nothing to him about the expected donation,but he could not forbear questioning his friend, whileeating, about country produce, sowing, and planting. Athosreplied complacently, as he always did. His idea was thatD'Artagnan wished to become a land-owner, only he could nothelp regretting, more than once, the absence of the livelyhumor and amusing sallies of the cheerful companion offormer days. In fact, D'Artagnan was so absorbed, that, withhis knife, he took advantage of the grease left at thebottom of his plate, to trace ciphers and make additions ofsurprising rotundity.

The order, or rather license, for their embarkation, arrivedat Athos's lodgings that evening. While this paper wasremitted to the comte, another messenger brought toD'Artagnan a little bundle of parchments, adorned with allthe seals employed in setting off property deeds in England.Athos surprised him turning over the leaves of thesedifferent acts which establish the transmission of property.The prudent Monk - others would say the generous Monk - had commuted the donation into a sale, and acknowledged thereceipt of the sum of fifteen thousand crowns as the priceof the property ceded. The messenger was gone. D'Artagnanstill continued reading, Athos watched him with a smile.D'Artagnan, surprising one of those smiles over hisshoulder, put the bundle in its wrapper.

"I beg your pardon," said Athos.

"Oh! not at all, my friend," replied the lieutenant, "Ishall tell you - - "

"No, don't tell me anything, I beg you; orders are things sosacred, that to one's brother, one's father, the personcharged with such orders should never open his mouth. ThusI, who speak to you, and love you more tenderly thanbrother, father, or all the world - - "

"Except your Raoul?"

"I shall love Raoul still better when he shall be a man, andI shall have seen him develop himself in all the phases ofhis character and his actions - as I have seen you, myfriend."

"You said, then, that you had an order likewise, and thatyou would not communicate it to me."

"Yes, my dear D'Artagnan."

The Gascon sighed. "There was a time," said he, "when youwould have placed that order open upon the table, saying,`D'Artagnan, read this scrawl to Porthos, Aramis, and tome.'"

"That is true. Oh! that was the time of youth, confidence,the generous season when the blood commands, when it iswarmed by feeling!"

"Well! Athos, will you allow me to tell you?"

"Speak, my friend!"

"That delightful time, that generous season, that ruling bywarm blood, were all very fine things, no doubt; but I donot regret them at all. It is absolutely like the period ofstudies. I have constantly met with fools who would boast ofthe days of pensums, ferules and crusts of dry bread. It issingular, but I never loved all that; for my part, howeveractive and sober I might be (you know if I was so, Athos),however simple I might appear in my clothes, I would not theless have preferred the braveries and embroideries ofPorthos to my little perforated cassock, which gave passageto the wind in winter and the sun in summer. I shouldalways, my friend, mistrust him who would pretend to preferevil to good. Now, in times past all went wrong with me, andevery month found a fresh hole in my cassock and in my skin,a gold crown less in my poor purse; of that execrable timeof small beer and see-saw, I regret absolutely nothing,nothing, nothing save our friendship; for within me I have aheart, and it is a miracle that heart has not been dried upby the wind of poverty which passed through the holes of mycloak, or pierced by the swords of all shapes which passedthrough the holes in my poor flesh."

"Do not regret our friendship," said Athos, "that will onlydie with ourselves. Friendship is composed, above allthings, of memories and habits, and if you have just nowmade a little satire upon mine, because I hesitate to tellyou the nature of my mission into France - - "

"Who! I? - Oh! heavens! if you knew, my dear friend, howindifferent all the missions of the world will henceforthbecome to me!" And he laid his hand upon the parchment inhis vest pocket.

Athos rose from the table and called the host in order topay the reckoning.

"Since I have known you, my friend," said D'Artagnan, "Ihave never discharged the reckoning. Porthos often did,Aramis sometimes, and you, you almost always drew out yourpurse with the dessert. I am now rich and should like to tryif it is heroic to pay."

"Do so," said Athos; returning his purse to his pocket.

The two friends then directed their steps towards the port,not, however, without D'Artagnan's frequently turning roundto watch the transportation of his dear crowns. Night hadjust spread her thick veil over the yellow waters of theThames; they heard those noises of casks and pulleys, thepreliminaries of preparing to sail which had so many timesmade the hearts of the musketeers beat when the dangers ofthe sea were the least of those they were going to face.This time they were to embark on board a large vessel whichawaited them at Gravesend, and Charles II., always delicatein small matters, had sent one of his yachts, with twelvemen of his Scotch guard, to do honor to the ambassador hewas sending to France. At midnight the yacht had depositedits passengers on board the vessel, and at eight o'clock inthe morning, the vessel landed the ambassador and his friendon the wharf at Boulogne. Whilst the comte, with Grimaud,was busy procuring horses to go straight to Paris,D'Artagnan hastened to the hostelry where, according to hisorders, his little army was to wait for him. These gentlemenwere at breakfast upon oysters, fish, and spiced brandy,when D'Artagnan appeared. They were all very gay, but notone of them had yet exceeded the bounds of reason. A hurrahof joy welcomed the general. "Here I am," said D'Artagnan,"the campaign is ended. I am come to bring to each hissupplement of pay, as agreed upon." Their eyes sparkled. "Iwill lay a wager there are not, at this moment, a hundredcrowns remaining in the purse of the richest among you."

"That is true," cried they in chorus.

"Gentlemen," said D'Artagnan, "then, this is the last order.The treaty of commerce has been concluded thanks to ourcoup-de-main which made us masters of the most skillfulfinancier of England, for now I am at liberty to confess toyou that the man we had to carry off was the treasurer ofGeneral Monk."

This word treasurer produced a certain effect on his army.D'Artagnan observed that the eyes of Menneville alone didnot evince perfect faith. "This treasurer," he continued, "Iconveyed to a neutral territory, Holland; I forced him tosign the treaty; I have even reconducted him to Newcastle,and as he was obliged to be satisfied with our proceedingstowards him - the deal coffer being always carried withoutjolting, and being lined softly, I asked for a gratificationfor you. Here it is." He threw a respectable-looking purseupon the cloth; and all involuntarily stretched out theirhands. "One moment, my lambs," said D'Artagnan; "if thereare profits, there are also charges."

"Oh! oh!" murmured they.

"We are about to find ourselves, my friends, in a positionthat would not be tenable for people without brains. I speakplainly: we are between the gallows and the Bastile."

"Oh! oh!" said the chorus.

"That is easily understood. It was necessary to explain toGeneral Monk the disappearance of his treasurer. I waited,for that purpose, till the very unhopedfor moment of therestoration of King Charles II., who is one of my friends."

The army exchanged a glance of satisfaction in reply to thesufficiently proud look of D'Artagnan. "The king beingrestored, I restored to Monk his man of business, a littleplucked, it is true, but, in short, I restored him. Now,General Monk, when he pardoned me, for he has pardoned me,could not help repeating these words to me, which I chargeevery one of you to engrave deeply there, between the eyes,under the vault of the cranium: - `Monsieur, the joke hasbeen a good one, but I don't naturally like jokes; if ever aword of what you have done' (you understand me, Menneville)`escapes from your lips, or the lips of your companions, Ihave, in my government of Scotland and Ireland, sevenhundred and forty-one wooden gibbets, of strong oak, clampedwith iron, and freshly greased every week. I will make apresent of one of these gibbets to each of you, and observewell, M. d'Artagnan,' added he (observe it also, M.Menneville), `I shall still have seven hundred and thirtyleft for my private pleasure. And still further - - '"

"Ah! ah!" said the auxiliaries, "is there more still?"

"A mere trifle. `Monsieur d'Artagnan, I send to the king ofFrance the treaty in question, with a request that he willcast into the Bastile provisionally, and then send to me,all who have taken part in this expedition; and that is aprayer with which the king will certainly comply.'"

A cry of terror broke from all corners of the table.

"There! there! there," said D'Artagnan, "this brave M. Monkhas forgotten one thing, and that is he does not know thename of any one of you, I alone know you, and it is not I,you may well believe, who will betray you. Why should I? Asfor you - I cannot suppose you will be silly enough todenounce yourselves, for then the king, to spare himself theexpense of feeding and lodging you, will send you off toScotland, where the seven hundred and forty-one gibbets areto be found. That is all, messieurs; I have not another wordto add to what I have had the honor to tell you. I am sureyou have understood me perfectly well, have you not, M.Menneville?"

"Perfectly," replied the latter.

"Now the crowns!" said D'Artagnan. "Shut the doors," hecried, and opened the bag upon the table, from which rolledseveral fine gold crowns. Every one made a movement towardsthe floor.

"Gently!" cried D'Artagnan. "Let no one stoop, and then Ishall not be out in my reckoning." He found it all right,gave fifty of those splendid crowns to each man, andreceived as many benedictions as he bestowed pieces. "Now,"said he, "if it were possible for you to reform a little, ifyou could become good and honest citizens - - "

"That is rather difficult," said one of the troop.

"What then, captain?" said another.

"Because I might be able to find you again, and, who knowswhat other good fortune?" He made a sign to Menneville, wholistened to all he said with a composed air. "Menneville,"said he, "come with me. Adieu my brave fellows! I need notwarn you to be discreet."

Menneville followed him, whilst the salutations of theauxiliaries were mingled with the sweet sound of the moneyclinking in their pockets.

"Menneville," said D'Artagnan, when they were once in thestreet, "you were not my dupe; beware of being so. You didnot appear to me to have any fear of the gibbets of Monk, orthe Bastile of his majesty, King Louis XIV., but you will dome the favor of being afraid of me. Then listen at thesmallest word that shall escape you, I will kill you as Iwould a fowl. I have absolution from our holy father, thepope, in my pocket."

"I assure you I know absolutely nothing, my dear M.d'Artagnan, and that your words have all been to me so manyarticles of faith."

"I was quite sure you were an intelligent fellow," said themusketeer; "I have tried you for a length of time. Thesefifty gold crowns which I give you above the rest will provethe esteem I have for you. Take them."

"Thanks, Monsieur d'Artagnan," said Menneville.

"With that sum you can really become an honest man," repliedD'Artagnan, in the most serious tone possible. "It would bedisgraceful for a mind like yours, and a name you no longerdare to bear, to sink forever under the rust of an evillife. Become a gallant man, Menneville, and live for a yearupon those hundred gold crowns: it is a good provision;twice the pay of a high officer. In a year come to me, and,Mordioux! I will make something of you."

Menneville swore, as his comrades had sworn, that he wouldbe as silent as the grave. And yet some one must havespoken; and as, certainly, it was not one of the ninecompanions, and quite as certainly, it was not Menneville,it must have been D'Artagnan, who, in his quality of aGascon, had his tongue very near to his lips. For, in short,if it were not he, who could it be? And how can it beexplained that the secret of the deal coffer pierced withholes should come to our knowledge, and in so complete afashion that we have, as has been seen, related the historyof it in all its most minute details; details which,besides, throw a light as new as unexpected upon all thatportion of the history of England which has been left, up tothe present day, completely in darkness by the historian ofour neighbors?