“What is your thought?” he exclaimed.

“This, sire,” replied D’Artagnan: “you cause a man to be arrested when you are still under his roof; and passion is alone the cause of that. When your anger shall have passed, you will regret what you have done; and then I wish to be in a position to show you your signature. If that, however, should fail to be a reparation, it will at least show us that the king was wrong to lose his temper.”

“Wrong to lose his temper!” cried the king, in a loud, passionate voice.

“Did not my father, my grandfathers, too, before me, lose their temper at times, in Heaven’s name?”

“The king your father and the king your grandfather never lost their temper except when under the protection of their own palace.”