said Athos. “Why not?”

D’Artagnan was brought to a pause.

“Oh!” said he; “whence do you know that a fishing-boat — ?”

“Brought you to Sainte-Marguerite’s with the carriage containing the prisoner — with a prisoner whom you styled monseigneur. Oh! I am acquainted with all that,” resumed the comte. D’Artagnan bit his mustache.

“If it were true,” said he, “that I had brought hither in a boat and with a carriage a masked prisoner, nothing proves that this prisoner must be a prince — a prince of the house of France.”

“Ask Aramis such riddles,” replied Athos, coolly.