D’Artagnan thus felt himself humiliated in having only procured one meal and a half for his companions — as the breakfast at the priest’s could only be counted as half a repast — in return for the feasts which Athos, Porthos, and Aramis had procured him. He fancied himself a burden to the society, forgetting in his perfectly juvenile good faith that he had fed this society for a month; and he set his mind actively to work. He reflected that this coalition of four young, brave, enterprising, and active men ought to have some other object than swaggering walks, fencing lessons, and practical jokes, more or less witty.

In fact, four men such as they were — four men devoted to one another, from their purses to their lives; four men always supporting one another, never yielding, executing singly or