“What is it?  Speak.”

“That your eminence will go at once to the queen.”

“What for?”

“Merely to say these words:  `I am going to send Monsieur d’Artagnan away and I wish him to set out directly.’”

“I told you,” said Mazarin, “that you had seen the queen.”

“I had the honor of saying to your eminence that there had been some mistake.”

“What is the meaning of that?”

“May I venture to repeat my prayer to your eminence?”

“Very well; I will go.  Wait here for me.”  And looking attentively around him, to see if he had left any of his keys in his closets, Mazarin went out.  Ten minutes elapsed, during which D’Artagnan made every effort to read through the first envelope what was written on the second.  But he did not succeed.

Mazarin returned, pale, and evidently thoughtful.  He seated himself at his desk and D’Artagnan proceeded to examine his face, as he had just examined the letter he held, but the envelope which covered his countenance appeared as impenetrable as that which covered the letter.

“Ah!” thought the Gascon; “he looks displeased.  Can it be with me?  He meditates.  Is it about sending me to the Bastile?  All very fine, my lord, but at the very first hint you give of such a thing I will strangle you and become Frondist.  I should be carried home in triumph like Monsieur Broussel and Athos would proclaim me the French Brutus.  It would be exceedingly droll.”

The Gascon, with his vivid imagination, had already seen the advantage to be derived from his situation.  Mazarin gave, however, no order of the kind, but on the contrary began to be insinuating.

“You were right,” he said, “my dear Monsieur d’Artagnan, and you cannot set out yet.  I beg you to return me that dispatch.”

D’Artagnan obeyed, and Mazarin ascertained that the seal was intact.

“I shall want you this evening,” he said “Return in two hours.”

“My lord,” said D’Artagnan, “I have an appointment in two hours which I cannot miss.”

“Do not be uneasy,” said Mazarin; “it is the same.”

“Good!” thought D’Artagnan; “I fancied it was so.”

“Return, then, at five o’clock and bring that worthy Monsieur du Vallon with you.  Only, leave him in the ante-room, as I wish to speak to you alone.”

D’Artagnan bowed, and thought:  “Both at the same hour; both commands alike; both at the Palais Royal.  Monsieur de Gondy would pay a hundred thousand francs for such a secret!”

“You are thoughtful,” said Mazarin, uneasily.

“Yes, I was thinking whether we ought to come armed or not.”

“Armed to the teeth!” replied Mazarin.

“Very well, my lord; it shall be so.”

D’Artagnan saluted, went out and hastened to repeat to his friend Mazarin’s flattering promises, which gave Porthos an indescribable happiness.

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