440 LOUISE DE LA VALLIERE.
- 'The aforesaid captain or governor of a fortress shall
allow to enter, when need shall arise, and on demand of the prisoner, a confessor affiliated to the order. He stopped. Baisemeaux was quite distressing to look at, being so wretchedly pale and trembling.
- 'Is not that the text of the agreement?" quietly asked
Aramis. Monseigneur!" began Baisemeaux. "Ah! well, you begin to understand, I think." "Monseigneur," cried Baisemeaux, "do not trifle so with my unhappy mind! I find myself nothing in your hands, if you have the malignant desire to draw from me the little secrets of my administration." "Oh! by no meaus; pray undeceive yourself, dear Mon- sieur Baisemeaux; it is not the little secrets of your admin- istration, but those of your conscience that I aim at." "Well, then, my conscience be it, dear Monsieur d'Her- blay. But have some consideration for the situation I am in, which is no ordinary one." "It is no ordinary one, my dear monsieur," continued the inflexible Aramis, "if you are a member of this society; but it is quite a natural one if free from all engagement. You are answerable only to the king." "Well, monsieur, well! I obey only the king, and whom else would you have a French nobleman obey?" Aramis did not yield an inch; but with that silvery voice of his continued: "It is very pleasant," said he, "for a French nobleman, for a prelate of France, to hear a man of your mark express himself so loyally, dear De Baisemeaux, and, having heard you, to believe no more than you do." "Have you doubted, monsieur?" "I? oh, no!" "And so you doubt no longer?" "I have no longer any doubt that such a man as you, monsieur," said Aramis gravely, "does not faithfully serve the masters whom he voluntarily chose for himself." "Masters!" cried Baisemeaux. "Yes, masters, I said." "Monsieur d'Herblay, you are still jesting, are you not?" "Oh, yes! I understand that it is a more difficult position to have several masters than one; but the embarrassment is owing to you, my dear Baisemeaux, and I am not the cause of it." "Certainly not," returned the unfortunate governor.
