"That shall be done," said D'Artagnan.
"I saw the place in my infancy," resumed the king, "and I do not wish to see it again.

You have heard me?
Go, monsieur, and do not return without the keys." Colbert went up to D'Artagnan.

"A commission which, if you carry it out well," said he, "will be worth a marechal's baton to you." "Why do you employ the words, 'if you carry it out well' ?" "Because it is difficult." "Ah! in what respect ?" "You have friends in Belle-Isle, Monsieur d'Artagnan; and it is not an easy thing for men like you to march over the bodies of their friends to obtain success." D'Artagnan hung his head in deepest thought, whilst Colbert returned to the king.

A quarter of an hour after, the captain received the written order from the king, to blow up the fortress of Belle-Isle, in case of resistance, with power of life and death over all the inhabitants or refugees, and an injunction not to allow one to escape.
"Colbert was right," thought D'Artagnan; "for me the baton of a marechal of France will cost the lives of my two friends.

Only they seem to forget that my friends are not more stupid than the birds, and that they will not wait for the hand of the fowler to extend over their wings.
I will show them that hand so plainly, that they will have quite time enough to see it.