"A truly admirable service indeed," he said, "is the one he has rendered to Mademoiselle de la Valliere! A truly admirable service to M.de Bragelonne! The duel has created a sensation which, in some respects, casts a dishonorable suspicion upon that young girl; a sensation, indeed, which will embroil her with the vicomte.

The consequence is, that De Wardes' pistol-bullet has had three results instead of one; it destroys at the same time the honor of a woman, the happiness of a man, and, perhaps, it has wounded to death one of the best gentlemen in France.

Oh, madame! your logic is cold and calculating; it always condemns--it never absolves." Manicamp's concluding words scattered to the winds the last doubt which lingered, not in Madame's heart, but in her head.

She was no longer a princess full of scruples, nor a woman with her ever-returning suspicions, but one whose heart had just felt the mortal chill of a wound.

"Wounded to death!" she murmured, in a faltering voice, "oh, Monsieur de Manicamp! did you not say, wounded to death ?" Manicamp returned no other answer than a deep sigh.
"And so you said that the comte is dangerously wounded ?" continued the princess.
"Yes, madame; one of his hands is shattered, and he has a bullet lodged in his breast." "Gracious heavens!" resumed the princess, with a feverish excitement, "this is horrible, Monsieur de Manicamp! a hand shattered, do you say, and a bullet in his breast?
And that coward! that wretch! that assassin, De Wardes, who did it!" Manicamp seemed overcome by a violent emotion.