But, however perfect his horse Zephyr might be, it could not hold out at such a pace forever.

The day after his departure from Paris, his mount was left at Chartres, at the house of an old friend D'Artagnan had met with in an _hotelier_ of that city.

From that moment the musketeer travelled on post-horses.

Thanks to this mode of locomotion, he traversed the space separating Chartres from Chateaubriand.

In the last of these two cities, far enough from the coast to prevent any one guessing that D'Artagnan wished to reach the sea--far enough from Paris to prevent all suspicion of his being a messenger from Louis XIV., whom D'Artagnan had called his sun, without suspecting that he who was only at present a rather poor star in the heaven of royalty, would, one day, make that star his emblem; the messenger of Louis XIV., we say, quitted his post and purchased a _bidet_ of the meanest appearance,--one of those animals which an officer of the cavalry would never choose, for fear of being disgraced.
Excepting the color, this new acquisition recalled to the mind of D'Artagnan the famous orange-colored horse, with which, or rather upon which, he had made his first appearance in the world.