“Besides,” said D’Artagnan—“pardon me, madame, if, guard as I am, I remind you of prudence—besides, I believe we are not here in a very proper place for imparting confidences. The men I have put to flight will return reinforced; if they find us here, we are lost. I have sent, to be sure, for three of my friends, but who knows whether they are at home?”

“Yes, yes; you are right,” cried the terrified Madame Bonacieux; “let us fly, let us escape!”

At these words she passed her arm under that of D’Artagnan, and pulled him forward eagerly.

“But whither shall we fly—where escape to?”

“Let us in the first place get away from this house; when clear of it we shall see.”

And the young woman and the young man, without taking the trouble to shut the door after them, descended the Rue des Fossoyeurs rapidly, turned into the Rue des Fossés-Monsieur-le-Prince, and did not stop till they came to the Place Saint-Sulpice.

“And now what are we to do, and where do you wish me to take you?” asked D’Artagnan.

“I am quite at a loss how to answer you, I confess,” said Madame Bonacieux. “My intention was to inform M. de la Porte, by means of my husband, in order that M. de la Porte might tell us exactly what has taken place at the Louvre in the course of the last three days, and whether there were any danger in presenting myself there.”

“But I,” said D’Artagnan, “can go and inform M. de la Porte.”

“No doubt you could; only there is one drawback in it, and this is that M. Bonacieux is known at the Louvre, and would be allowed to pass; whereas you are not known there, and the gate would be closed against you.”

“Ah, bah!” said D’Artagnan; “there is no doubt you have at some wicket of the Louvre a porter who is devoted to you, and who, thanks to a password, would—”

Madame Bonacieux looked earnestly at the young man.

“And if I give you this password,” said she, “would you forget it as soon as you had made use of it?”

“By my honour, by the faith of a gentleman!” said D’Artagnan, with an accent so truthful no one could mistake it.

“Then I believe you. You appear to be a brave young man; besides, your fortune, perhaps, will be the result of your devotion.”

“I will do, without a promise, and conscientiously, all that I can do to serve the king and be agreeable to the queen. Use me, then, as a friend.”

“But I—where shall I go in the meanwhile?”

“Do you know no one to whose house M. de la Porte can go to get you?”

“No, I will trust nobody.”

“Stop,” said D’Artagnan; “we are near Athos’s door. “Yes, here it is.”

“Who is this Athos?”

“One of my friends.”