"Then give me quickly one solution. My time is valuable. What have you been doing since your discharge?"
"Making my fortune, sire."
"The expression is crude, Monsieur d'Artagnan."
"Your majesty takes it in bad part, certainly. I entertain nothing but the profoundest respect for the king; and if I have been impolite, which might be excused by my long sojourn in camps and barracks, your majesty is too much above me to be offended at a word that innocently escapes from a soldier."
"In fact, I know you performed a brilliant action in England, monsieur. I only regret that you have broken your promise."
"I!" cried D'Artagnan.
"Doubtless. You engaged your word not to serve any other prince on quitting my service. Now it was for King Charles II. that you undertook the marvelous carrying off of M. Monk."
"Pardon me, sire; it was for myself."
"And did you succeed?"
"Like the captains of the fifteenth century, coups-de-main and adventures."
"What do you call succeeding?--a fortune?"
"A hundred thousand crowns, sire, which I now possess--that is, in one week three times as much money as I ever had in fifty years."
"It is a handsome sum. But you are ambitious, I perceive."
"I, sire? The quarter of that would be a treasure; and I swear to you I have no thought of augmenting it."
"What! you contemplate remaining idle?"
"Yes, sire."
"You mean to drop the sword?"
"That I have already done."
"Impossible, Monsieur d'Artagnan," said Louis, firmly.
"But, sire--"
"Well?"
"And why, sire?"
"Because it is my wish you should not!" said the young prince, in a voice so stern and imperious that D'Artagnan evinced surprise and even uneasiness.
"Will your majesty allow me one word of reply?" said he.
"Speak."
"I formed that resolution when I was poor and destitute."
"So be it. Go on."
"Now, when by my energy I have acquired a comfortable means of subsistence, would your majesty despoil me of my liberty? Your majesty would condemn me to the lowest, when I have gained the highest?"
"Who gave you permission, monsieur, to fathom my designs, or to reckon with me?" replied Louis, in a voice almost angry; "who told you what I shall do or what you will yourself do?"
"Sire," said the musketeer, quietly, "as far as I see, freedom is not the order of the conversation, as it was on the day we came to an explanation at Blois."