Your majesty was about to do me the honor to relate----" "That is true.

I had the protection,--pardon my hesitation, count, but, for a Stuart, you, who understand everything, you will comprehend that the word is hard to pronounce;--I had, I say, the protection of my cousin the stadtholder of Holland; but without the intervention, or at least without the authorization of France, the stadtholder would not take the initiative.

I came, then, to ask this authorization of the king of France, who has refused me." "The king has refused you, sire!" "Oh, not he; all justice must be rendered to my younger brother Louis; but Monsieur de Mazarin----" Athos bit his lips.
"You perhaps think I should have expected this refusal ?" said the king, who had noticed the movement.
"That was, in truth, my thought, sire," replied Athos, respectfully, "I know that Italian of old." "Then I determined to come to the test, and know at once the last word of my destiny.

I told my brother Louis, that, not to compromise either France or Holland, I would tempt fortune myself in person, as I had already done, with two hundred gentlemen, if he would give them to me, and a million, if he would lend it me." "Well, sire ?" "Well, monsieur, I am suffering at this moment something strange, and that is, the satisfaction of despair.

There is in certain souls,--and I have just discovered that mine is of the number,--a real satisfaction in the assurance that all is lost, and the time is come to yield." "Oh, I hope," said Athos, "that your majesty is not come to that extremity." "To say so, my lord count, to endeavor to revive hope in my heart, you must have ill understood what I have just told you.