And if the usurper had been recognized by Anne of Austria, he would still have been--her son.

The usurper, as far as Monsieur d'Herblay's conscience was concerned, was still a king of the blood of Louis XIII.

Moreover, the conspirator, in that course, would have had security, secrecy, impunity.

A pistol-bullet would have procured him all that.

For the sake of Heaven, sire, grant me his forgiveness." The king, instead of being touched by the picture, so faithfully drawn in all details, of Aramis's generosity, felt himself most painfully and cruelly humiliated.