“Ah! upon my word,” said she, “it is very droll, and that mad Marie Michon fared better than she expected.  Sit down, dear count, and go on with your story.”

“At this point I have to accuse myself of a fault, madame.  I have told you that I was traveling on an important mission.  At daybreak I left the chamber without noise, leaving my charming companion asleep.  In the front room the follower was also still asleep, her head leaning back on the chair, in all respects worthy of her mistress.  Her pretty face arrested my attention; I approached and recognized that little Kitty whom our friend Aramis had placed with her.  In that way I discovered that the charming traveler was ——­ "

“Marie Michon!” said Madame de Chevreuse, hastily.

“Marie Michon,” continued Athos.  “Then I went out of the house; I proceeded to the stable and found my horse saddled and my lackey ready.  We set forth on our journey.”

“And have you never revisited that village?” eagerly asked Madame de Chevreuse.

“A year after, madame.”

“Well?”

“I wanted to see the good cure again.  I found him much preoccupied with an event that he could not at all comprehend.  A week before he had received, in a cradle, a beautiful little boy three months old, with a purse filled with gold and a note containing these simple words:  `11 October, 1633.’”

“It was the date of that strange adventure,” interrupted Madame de Chevreuse.

“Yes, but he couldn’t understand what it meant, for he had spent that night with a dying person and Marie Michon had left his house before his return.”

“You must know, monsieur, that Marie Michon, when she returned to France in 1643, immediately sought for information about that child; as a fugitive she could not take care of it, but on her return she wished to have it near her.”

“And what said the abbe?” asked Athos.

“That a nobleman whom he did not know had wished to take charge of it, had answered for its future, and had taken it away.”

“That was true.”

“Ah!  I see!  That nobleman was you; it was his father!”

“Hush! do not speak so loud, madame; he is there.”

“He is there! my son! the son of Marie Michon!  But I must see him instantly.”

“Take care, madame,” said Athos, “for he knows neither his father nor his mother.”

“You have kept the secret! you have brought him to see me, thinking to make me happy.  Oh, thanks! sir, thanks!” cried Madame de Chevreuse, seizing his hand and trying to put it to her lips; “you have a noble heart.”

“I bring him to you, madame,” said Athos, withdrawing his hand, “hoping that in your turn you will do something for him; till now I have watched over his education and I have made him, I hope, an accomplished gentleman; but I am now obliged to return to the dangerous and wandering life of party faction.  To-morrow I plunge into an adventurous affair in which I may be killed.  Then it will devolve on you to push him on in that world where he is called on to occupy a place.”