as you well know.”

“‘Tis true,” replied D’Artagnan. “Yet the great sometimes repent of their ingratitude.”

“In that case it would be quite another thing. Come! let’s be merciful to every sinner! Besides, you are right in another respect, which is in thinking that if we were to meddle in politics there could not be a better time than the present.”

“How can you know that? You who never interest yourself in politics?”

“Ah! without caring about them myself, I live among those who are much occupied in them.

Poet as I am, I am intimate with Sarazin, who is devoted to the Prince de Conti, and with Monsieur de