the host. 

 “Oh, yes! Perfectly safe and sound, my good host; and I wish to know what has become of our young man.” 

 “He is better,” said the host, “he fainted quite away.” 

 “Indeed!” said the gentleman. 

 “But before he fainted, he collected all his strength to challenge you, and to defy you while challenging you.” 

 “Why, this fellow must be the devil in person!” cried the stranger. 

 “Oh, no, your Excellency, he is not the devil,” replied the host, with a grin of contempt; “for during his fainting we rummaged his valise and found nothing but a clean shirt and eleven crowns—which however, did not prevent his saying, as he was fainting, that if such a thing had happened in Paris, you should have cause to repent of it at a later period.” 

 “Then,” said the stranger coolly, “he must be some prince in disguise.” 

 “I have told you this, good sir,” resumed the host, “in order that you may be on your guard.” 

 “Did he name no one in his passion?” 

 “Yes; he struck his pocket and said, ‘We shall see what Monsieur de Tréville will think of this insult offered to his protégé.’” 

 “Monsieur de Tréville?” said the stranger, becoming attentive, “he put his hand upon his pocket while pronouncing the name of Monsieur de Tréville? Now, my dear host, while your young man was insensible, you did not fail, I am quite sure, to ascertain what that pocket contained. What was there in it?” 

 “A letter addressed to Monsieur de Tréville, captain of the Musketeers.” 

 “Indeed!” 

 “Exactly as I have the honor to tell your Excellency.” 

 The host, who was not endowed with great perspicacity, did not observe the expression which his words had given to the physiognomy of the stranger. The latter rose from the front of the window, upon the sill of which he had leaned with his elbow, and knitted his brow like a man disquieted. 

 “The devil!” murmured he, between his teeth. “Can Tréville have set 

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