“Of ill-omen — for a gentleman? Certainly not, monsieur le comte,” replied Porthos, nobly. “I have simply come to say that you have seriously insulted a friend of mine.”

“I, monsieur?” exclaimed Saint-Aignan — ”I have insulted a friend of yours, do you say?

May I ask his name?”

“M. Raoul de Bragelonne.”

“I have insulted M. Raoul de Bragelonne!” cried Saint-Aignan. “I really assure you, monsieur, that it is quite impossible; for M. de Bragelonne, whom I know but very slightly, — nay, whom I know hardly at all — is in England, and, as I have not seen him for a long time past, I cannot possibly have insulted him.”