grudges! Why, monsieur, have your antipathies survived mine? If any one has cause to complain, I think it could not be you, who got out of the affair not only in a sound skin, but with the cordon of the Holy Ghost around your neck.”

“My lord cardinal,” replied Athos, “permit me not to enter into considerations of that kind. I have a mission to fulfill. Will you facilitate the means of my fulfilling that mission, or will you not?”

“I am astonished,” said Mazarin, — quite delighted at having recovered his memory, and bristling with malice, — ”I am astonished, Monsieur — Athos — that a Frondeur like you should have accepted a mission for the Perfidious Mazarin, as used to be said in the good old times — ” And