82 LOmSE DE LJl valliere. "Oh! indeed, yes; for, if I unsheathed my sword for the cardinal, I struck for the king," "Dear Porthos!" "Well, I have done. My dread of politics is such that if there is any question of politics in the matter, I should far sooner prefer to return to Pierrefonds." "You would be quite right, if that were the case. But with me, dear Porthos, no politics at all, that is quite clear. You have labored hard in fortifying Belle-Isle; the king wished to know the name of the clever engineer under whose directions the works were carried on; you are modest, as all men of true genius are; perhaps Aramis wishes to put you under a bushel. But I happen to seize hold of you; I make it known who you are; I produce you; the king re- wards you; and that is the only policy I have to do with." "And the only one I will have to do with, either," said Porthos, holding out his hand to D'Artagnan. But D'Artagnan knew Porthos' grasp; he knew that once imprisoned within the baron's five fingers, no hand ever left it without being half-crushed. He therefore held out, not his hand, but his fist, and Porthos did not even perceive the difference. The servants talked a little with each other in an undertone, and whispered a few words, which D'Artagnan understood, but which he took very good care not to let Porthos understand. "Our friend," he said to himself, "was really and truly Aramis' prisoner Let us now see what the result will be of the liberation of the captive." CHAPTEE IV. THE RAT AND THE CHEESE. D'Artagnan and Porthos returned on foot, as D'Artag- nan had arrived. When D'Artagnan, as he entered the shop of the Pilon d'Or, had announced to Planchet that M. du Vallon would be one of the privileged travelers, and when the plume in Porthos' hat had made the wooden candles suspended over the front jingle together, something almost like a melancholy presentiment troubled the delight which Planchet had promised himself for the next day. But the grocer's heart was of sterling metal, a precious relic of the good old time, which always remains what it has always been for those who are getting old the time of
