He could not help showing something of this to Porthos, who replied--"Ay! ay! I guess how it is! the mission is a secret one." These were his last words in the carriage.

The driver interrupted him by saying, "Gentlemen, we have arrived." Porthos and his companion alighted before the gate of the little chateau, where we are about to meet again our old acquaintances Athos and Bragelonne, the latter of whom had disappeared since the discovery of the infidelity of La Valliere.

If there be one saying truer than another, it is this: great griefs contain within themselves the germ of consolation.

This painful wound, inflicted upon Raoul, had drawn him nearer to his father again; and God knows how sweet were the consolations which flowed from the eloquent mouth and generous heart of Athos.

The wound was not cicatrized, but Athos, by dint of conversing with his son and mixing a little more of his life with that of the young man, had brought him to understand that this pang of a first infidelity is necessary to every human existence; and that no one has loved without encountering it.