“consider my modesty, my dear D’Artagnan.”

“In truth,” replied the musketeer, “can it be you — who — oh!”

“Pray — my dear friend — ”

“You who have imagined, traced, and combined between these bastions, these redans, these curtains, these half-moons; and are preparing that covered way?”

“I beg you — ”

“You who have built that lunette with its retiring angles and its salient edges?”

“My friend — ”

“You who have given that inclination to the openings of your embrasures, by means of which you so effectively protect the men who serve the guns?”