“Why, you told me he was a young man! This is a boy, Tréville, a mere boy! Do you mean to say that it was he who bestowed that severe thrust upon Jussac?”

“Without reckoning,” said Athos, “that if he had not rescued me from the hands of Cahusac, I should not now have the honour of making my very humble reverence to your Majesty.”

“Why, this Béarnais is a very devil! Ventre-saint-gris! Monsieur de Tréville, as the king my father would have said. But at this sort of work many doublets must be slashed and many swords broken. But Gascons are always poor, are they not?”

“Sire, I must say that they have not yet discovered any gold mines in their mountains; though the Lord owes them this miracle in recompense for the manner in which they supported the claims of the king, your father.”

“Which means that the Gascons made a king of me myself, seeing that I am my father’s son, does it not, Tréville? Well, in good faith, I don’t say nay to it.—La Chesnaye, go and see if, by rummaging all my pockets, you can find forty pistoles; and if you find them bring them to me.—And now let us see, young man, with your hand upon your conscience, how did all this come to pass?”

D’Artagnan related the adventure in all its details.

“This is all very well,” murmured the king. “But that’s quite enough, gentlemen; please to understand that’s enough. You have taken your revenge and you ought to be satisfied.”

“If your Majesty is,” said Tréville, “we are.”

“Oh yes, I am,” added the king, taking a handful of gold from La Chesnaye and putting it into the hand of D’Artagnan. “Here,” said he, “is a proof of my satisfaction.”

At this period the ideas of pride which are in fashion in our days did not prevail. A gentleman received money directly from the king’s hand, and was not in the least humiliated. D’Artagnan put his forty pistoles into his pocket without any scruple; on the contrary, he thanked his Majesty most heartily.“There,” said the king, looking at a clock—“there now, as it is half-past eight, you may retire; for, as I told you, I expect some one at nine. Thanks for your devotion, gentlemen. I may continue to rely upon it, may I not?”

“O sire!” cried the four companions with one voice, “we would allow ourselves to be cut to pieces in your Majesty’s service!”

“Well, well, but keep whole; that will be better, and you will be more useful to me. Tréville,” added the king in a low voice, as the others were retiring, “as you have no room in your musketeers, and as we have besides decided that a novitiate is necessary before entering that corps, place this young man in the company of guards commanded by your brother-in-law, M. des Essarts. Ah, zounds! I enjoy in advance the face the cardinal will make. He will be furious; but I don’t care. I am doing what is right.”

And the king waved his hand to Tréville, who left him and rejoined the musketeers, whom he found sharing the forty pistoles with D’Artagnan.

And the cardinal, as his Majesty had said, was really furious, so furious that for a whole week he absented himself from the king’s card-table, which did not prevent the king from being as complacent to him as possible, or, whenever he met him, from asking in the kindest tone,

“Well, cardinal, how fares it with that poor Jussac of yours?”