You see, sire, that I have remembered." The king could not resist or conceal his emotion.

Athos beheld the movement of his shoulders, which undulated convulsively; he heard the sobs which burst from his overcharged breast.

He was silent himself, suffocated by the flood of bitter remembrances he had just poured upon that royal head.

Charles II., with a violent effort, left the window, devoured his tears, and came and sat by Athos.

"Sire," said the latter, "I thought till to-day that the time had not yet arrived for the employment of that last resource; but, with my eyes fixed upon England, I felt it was approaching.