Those who love, or who are beloved, will understand his anxiety in the first place, and his happiness in the next.

He hastily tore open the letter, which, however, contained only these words: "It is but an hour since I quitted you, it is an age since I told you how much I love you." And that was all.

Madame de Belliere had, in fact, left Fouquet about an hour previously, after having passed two days with him; and apprehensive lest his remembrance of her might be effaced for too long a period from the heart she regretted, she dispatched a courier to him as the bearer of this important communication.

Fouquet kissed the letter, and rewarded the bearer with a handful of gold.

As for Aramis, he, on his side, was engaged in reading, but with more coolness and reflection, the following letter: "The king has this evening been struck with a strange fancy; a woman loves him.