Raoul did not meet with D'Artagnan the next day, as he hadhoped. He only met with Planchet, whose joy was great atseeing the young man again, and who contrived to pay him twoor three little soldierly compliments, savoring very littleof the grocer's shop. But as Raoul was returning the nextday from Vincennes, at the head of fifty dragoons confidedto him by Monsieur le Prince, he perceived, in La PlaceBaudoyer, a man with his nose in the air, examining a houseas we examine a horse we have a fancy to buy. This man,dressed in citizen costume buttoned up like a militarypourpoint, a very small hat on his head, but a longshagreen-mounted sword by his side, turned his head as soonas he heard the steps of the horses, and left off looking atthe house to look at the dragoons. It was simply M.d'Artagnan; D'Artagnan on foot; D'Artagnan with his handsbehind him, passing a little review upon the dragoons, afterhaving reviewed the buildings. Not a man, not a tag, not ahorse's hoof escaped his inspection. Raoul rode at the sideof his troop; D'Artagnan perceived him the last. "Eh!" saidhe, "Eh! Mordioux!"

"I was not mistaken!" cried Raoul, turning his horse towardshim.

"Mistaken - no! Good-day to you," replied the ex-musketeer;whilst Raoul eagerly pressed the hand of his old friend."Take care, Raoul," said D'Artagnan, "the second horse ofthe fifth rank will lose a shoe before he gets to the PontMarie; he has only two nails left in his off fore-foot."

"Wait a minute, I will come back," said Raoul.

"Can you quit your detachment?"

"The cornet is there to take my place."

"Then you will come and dine with me?"

"Most willingly, Monsieur d'Artagnan."

"Be quick, then; leave your horse, or make them give meone."

"I prefer coming back on foot with you."

Raoul hastened to give notice to the cornet, who took hispost; he then dismounted, gave his horse to one of thedragoons, and with great delight seized the arm of M.d'Artagnan, who had watched him during all these littleevolutions with the satisfaction of a connoisseur.

"What, do you come from Vincennes?" said he.

"Yes, monsieur le chevalier."

"And the cardinal?"

"Is very ill, it is even reported he is dead.'

"Are you on good terms with M. Fouquet?" asked D'Artagnan,with a disdainful movement of the shoulders, proving thatthe death of Mazarin did not affect him beyond measure.

"With M. Fouquet?" said Raoul " I do not know him."

"So much the worse! so much the worse! for a new king alwaysseeks to get good men in his employment."

"Oh! the king means no harm," replied the young man.

"I say nothing about the crown," cried D'Artagnan; "I amspeaking of the king - the king, that is M. Fouquet, if thecardinal is dead. You must contrive to stand well with M.Fouquet, if you do not wish to molder away all your life asI have moldered. It is true you have, fortunately, otherprotectors."

"M. le Prince, for instance."

"Worn out! worn out!"

"M. le Comte de la Fere?"

"Athos! Oh! that's different; yes, Athos - and if you haveany wish to make your way in England, you cannot apply to abetter person; I can even say, without too much vanity, thatI myself have some credit at the court of Charles II. Thereis a king - God speed him!"

"Ah!" cried Raoul, with the natural curiosity of well-bornyoung people, while listening to experience and courage.

"Yes, a king who amuses himself, it is true, but who has hada sword in his hand, and can appreciate useful men. Athos ison good terms with Charles II. Take service there, and leavethese scoundrels of contractors and farmers-general, whosteal as well with French hands as others have done withItalian hands; leave the little snivelling king, who isgoing to give us another reign of Francis II. Do you knowanything of history, Raoul?"

"Yes, monsieur le chevalier."

"Do you know, then, that Francis II. had always theearache?"

"No, I did not know that."

"That Charles IV. had always the headache?"

"Indeed!"

"And Henry III. always the stomach-ache?"

Raoul began to laugh.

"Well, my dear friend, Louis XIV. always has the heartache;it is deplorable to see a king sighing from morning tillnight without saying once in course of the day,ventre-saint-gris! corboeuf! or anything to rouse one."

"Was that the reason why you quitted the service, monsieurle chevalier?"

"Yes."

"But you yourself, M. d'Artagnan, are throwing the handleafter the axe; you will not make a fortune."

"Who? I?" replied D'Artagnan, in a careless tone; "I amsettled - I had some family property."

Raoul looked at him. The poverty of D'Artagnan wasproverbial. A Gascon, he exceeded in ill-luck all thegasconnades of France and Navarre; Raoul had a hundred timesheard Job and D'Artagnan named together, as the twinsRomulus and Remus. D'Artagnan caught Raoul's look ofastonishment.

"And has not your father told you I have been in England?"

"Yes, monsieur le chevalier."

"And that I there met with a very lucky chance?"

"No, monsieur, I did not know that."

"Yes, a very worthy friend of mine, a great nobleman, theviceroy of Scotland and Ireland, has endowed me with aninheritance."

"An inheritance?"

"And a good one, too."

"Then you are rich?"

"Bah!"

"Receive my sincere congratulation."

"Thank you! Look, that is my house."

"Place de Greve?"

"Yes, don't you like this quarter?"

"On the contrary, the look-out over the water is pleasant.Oh! what a pretty old house!"

"The sign Notre Dame; it is an old cabaret, which I havetransformed into a private house in two days."

"But the cabaret is still open?"

"Pardieu!"

"And where do you lodge, then?

"I? I lodge with Planchet."

"You said, just now, `This is my house.'"

"I said so, because, in fact, it is my house. I have boughtit."

"Ah!" said Raoul.

"At ten years' purchase, my dear Raoul; a superb affair, Ibought the house for thirty thousand livres; it has a gardenwhich opens to the Rue de la Mortillerie; the cabaret letsfor a thousand livres, with the first story; the garret, orsecond floor, for five hundred livres."

"Indeed!"

"Yes, indeed."

"Five hundred livres for a garret? Why, it is nothabitable."

"Therefore no one inhabits it, only, you see this garret hastwo windows which look out upon the Place."

"Yes, monsieur."

"Well, then, every time anybody is broken on the wheel orhung, quartered, or burnt, these two windows let for twentypistoles."

"Oh!" said Raoul, with horror.

"It is disgusting, is it not?" said D'Artagnan.

"Oh!" repeated Raoul.

"It is disgusting, but so it is. These Parisian cockneys aresometimes real anthropophagi. I cannot conceive how men,Christians, can make such speculations."

"That is true."

"As for myself," continued D'Artagnan, "if I inhabited thathouse, on days of execution I would shut it up to the verykeyholes; but I do not inhabit it."

"And you let the garret for five hundred livres?"

"To the ferocious cabaretier, who sub-lets it. I said, then,fifteen hundred livres."

"The natural interest of money," said Raoul, - "five percent."

"Exactly so. I then have left the side of the house at theback, store-rooms, and cellars, inundated every winter, twohundred livres; and the garden, which is very fine, wellplanted, well shaded under the walls and the portal ofSaint-Gervais-Saint-Protais, thirteen hundred livres."

"Thirteen hundred livres! why, that is royal!"

"This is the whole history. I strongly suspect some canon ofthe parish (these canons are all as rich as Croesus) - Isuspect some canon of having hired the garden to take hispleasure in. The tenant has given the name of M. Godard.That is either a false name or a real name; if true, he is acanon; if false, he is some unknown; but of what consequenceis it to me? he always pays in advance. I had also an ideajust now, when I met you, of buying a house in the PlaceBaudoyer, the back premises of which join my garden, andwould make a magnificent property. Your dragoons interruptedmy calculations. But come, let us take the Rue de laVannerie: that will lead us straight to M. Planchet's."D'Artagnan mended his pace, and conducted Raoul toPlanchet's dwelling, a chamber of which the grocer had givenup to his old master. Planchet was out, but the dinner wasready. There was a remains of military regularity andpunctuality preserved in the grocer's household. D'Artagnanreturned to the subject of Raoul's future.

"Your father brings you up rather strictly?" said he.

"Justly, monsieur le chevalier."

"Oh, yes, I know Athos is just, but close, perhaps?"

"A royal hand, Monsieur d'Artagnan."

"Well, never want, my boy! If ever you stand in need of afew pistoles, the old musketeer is at hand."

"My dear Monsieur d'Artagnan!"

"Do you play a little?"

"Never."

"Successful with the ladies, then? - Oh, my little Aramis!That, my dear friend, costs even more than play. It is truewe fight when we lose, that is a compensation. Bah! thatlittle sniveller, the king, makes winners give him hisrevenge. What a reign! my poor Raoul, what a reign! When wethink that, in my time, the musketeers were besieged intheir houses like Hector and Priam in the city of Troy, andthe women wept, and then the walls laughed, and then fivehundred beggarly fellows clapped their hands, and cried,`Kill! kill!' when not one musketeer was hurt. Mordioux! youwill never see anything like that."

"You are very hard upon the king, my dear Monsieurd'Artagnan; and yet you scarcely know him."

"I! Listen, Raoul. Day by day, hour by hour, - take note ofmy words, - I will predict what he will do. The cardinalbeing dead, he will fret; very well, that is the least sillything he will do, particularly if he does not shed a tear."

"And then?"

"Why then he will get M. Fouquet to allow him a pension, andwill go and compose verses at Fontainebleau, upon someMancini or other, whose eyes the queen will scratch out. Sheis a Spaniard, you see, - this queen of ours, and she has,for mother-in-law, Madame Anne of Austria. I know somethingof the Spaniards of the house of Austria."

"And next?"

"Well, after having torn off the silver lace from theuniforms of his Swiss, because lace is too expensive, hewill dismount the musketeers, because the oats and hay of ahorse cost five sols a day."

"Oh! do not say that."

"Of what consequence is it to me? I am no longer amusketeer, am I? Let them be on horseback, let them be onfoot, let them carry a larding-pin, a spit, a sword, ornothing - what is it to me?"

"My dear Monsieur d'Artagnan, I beseech you speak no moreill of the king. I am almost in his service, and my fatherwould be very angry with me for having heard, even from yourmouth, words injurious to his majesty."

"Your father, eh? He is a knight in every bad cause.Pardieu! yes, your father is a brave man, a Caesar, it istrue - but a man without perception."

"Now, my dear chevalier," exclaimed Raoul, laughing, "areyou going to speak ill of my father, of him you call thegreat Athos. Truly you are in a bad vein to-day; richesrender you as sour as poverty renders other people."

"Pardieu! you are right. I am a rascal and in my dotage; Iam an unhappy wretch grown old; a tent-cord untwisted, apierced cuirass, a boot without a sole, a spur without arowel; - but do me the pleasure to add one thing."

"What is that, my dear Monsieur d'Artagnan?"

"Simply say: `Mazarin was a pitiful wretch.'"

"Perhaps he is dead."

"More the reason - I say was; if I did not hope that he wasdead, I would entreat you to say: `Mazarin is a pitifulwretch.' Come, say so, say so, for love of me."

"Well, I will."

"Say it!"

"Mazarin was a pitiful wretch," said Raoul, smiling at themusketeer, who roared with laughter, as in his best days.

"A moment," said the latter; "you have spoken my firstproposition, here is the conclusion of it, - repeat, Raoul,repeat: `But I regret Mazarin.'"

"Chevalier!"

"You will not say it? Well, then, I will say it twice foryou."

"But you would regret Mazarin?"

And they were still laughing and discussing this professionof principles, when one of the shop-boys entered. "A letter,monsieur," said he, "for M. d'Artagnan."

"Thank you; give it me," cried the musketeer.

"The handwriting of monsieur le comte," said Raoul.

"Yes, yes." And D'Artagnan broke the seal.

"Dear friend," said Athos, "a person has just been here tobeg me to seek for you, on the part of the king."

"Seek me!" said D'Artagnan, letting the paper fall upon thetable. Raoul picked it up, and continued to read aloud: -

"Make haste. His majesty is very anxious to speak to you,and expects you at the Louvre."

"Expects me?" again repeated the musketeer.

"He, he, he!" laughed Raoul.

"Oh, oh!" replied D'Artagnan. "What the devil can thismean?"