[4] Under this blow Athos staggered and the prince himself was moved.
Grimaud uttered a heavy groan, and let fall the bottle, which was broken without anybody paying attention.

M.de Beaufort looked the young man in the face, and read plainly, though his eyes were cast down, the fire of resolution before which everything must give way.

As to Athos, he was too well acquainted with that tender, but inflexible soul; he could not hope to make it deviate from the fatal road it had just chosen.

He could only press the hand the duke held out to him.

"Comte, I shall set off in two days for Toulon," said M.de Beaufort.