As to the first subject, the reply was negative; he knew right well that the king's calling him was from necessity.

He still further knew that Louis XIV.

must experience an imperious desire for a private conversation with one whom the possession of such a secret placed on a level with the highest powers of the kingdom.

But as to saying exactly what the king's wish was, D'Artagnan found himself completely at a loss.
The musketeer had no doubts, either, upon the reason which had urged the unfortunate Philippe to reveal his character and birth.

Philippe, buried forever beneath a mask of steel, exiled to a country where the men seemed little more than slaves of the elements; Philippe, deprived even of the society of D'Artagnan, who had loaded him with honors and delicate attentions, had nothing more to see than odious specters in this world, and, despair beginning to devour him, he poured himself forth in complaints, in the belief that his revelations would raise up some avenger for him.