LOUISE DE LA VALLIEEE. 429 bedside conversations. If I had told Eaoul all I believe, I know the poor fellow would have died from it; but I am in the king's service, and cannot relate all I hear about the king's affairs. If your heart tells you to do it, set off at once; the matter concerns you more than myself, and al- most as much as Raoul." Grimaud tore, not a handful, but a finger and thumbful of hair out of his head; he would have done more if his head of hair had been in more flourishing circumstances. "Yes," he said, "that is the key of the whole enigma. The young girl has been playing her pranks; what people say about her and the king is true, then; our young master has been deceived; he ought to know it. Monsieur le Comte has been to see the king, and has told him a piece of his mind; and then the king sent Monsieur d'Artagnan to arrange the affair. Ah ! gracious goodness !" continued Grimaud, "Monsieur le Comte, I now remember, returned without his sword." This discovery made the perspiration break out all over poor Grimaud's face. He did not waste any more time in useless conjecture, but clapped his hat on his head, and ran to Raoul's lodgings. Eaoul, after Louise had left him, had mastered his grief, if not his affection; and, compelled to look forward on that perilous road on which madness and rebellion were hurry- ing him, he had seen, from the very first glance, his father exposed to the royal obstinacy ; since Athos had himself been the first to oppose any resistance to the royal will. At this moment, from a very natural sympathy of feeling, the unhappy young man remembered the mysterious signs which Athos had made, and the unexpected visit of D'Ar- tagnan; the result of the conflict between a sovereign and a subject revealed itself to his terrified vision. As D'Artag- nan was on duty, that is, fixed to his post without possibil- ity of leaving it, it was certainly not likely that he had come to pay Athos a visit merely for the pleasure of seeing him. He must have come to say something to him. This some- thing, in such painful conjectures, was either a misfortune or a danger. Raoul trembled at having been so selfish as to have forgotten his father for his affection; at having, in a word, passed his time in idle dreams, or in an indulgence of despair, at a time when a necessity existed for repelling the imminent attack directed against Athos. The very idea nearly drove him wild; he buckled on his sword and ran.
