Aramis felt obliged, therefore, to inflict upon Porthos the pain of mounting on horseback again.

They rode on till seven o'clock in the evening, and had only one post more between them and Blois.

But here a diabolical accident alarmed Aramis greatly.

There were no horses at the post.

The prelate asked himself by what infernal machination his enemies had succeeded in depriving him of the means of going further,--he who never recognized chance as a deity, who found a cause for every accident, preferred believing that the refusal of the postmaster, at such an hour, in such a country, was the consequence of an order emanating from above: an order given with a view of stopping short the king-maker in the midst of his flight.