The Vicomte de Bragelonne - Alexandre Dumas

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the king will appreciate your conduct; but to wish to serve your friends too well is to destroy them. Manicamp, you know the name the king asks you for?"

      "It is perfectly true—I do know it."

      "You will give it up then?"

      "If I felt I ought to have mentioned it, I should have already done so."

      "Then I will tell it, for I am not so extremely sensitive on such points of honor as you are."

      "You are at liberty to do so, but it seems to me, however—"

      "Oh! a truce to magnanimity; I will not permit you to go to the Bastille in that way. Do you speak; or I will."

      Manicamp was keen-witted enough, and perfectly understood that he had done quite sufficient to produce a good opinion of his conduct: it was now only a question of persevering in such a manner as to regain the good graces of the king. "Speak, monsieur," he said to Saint-Aignan: "I have on my own behalf done all that my conscience told me to do, and it must have been very importunate," he added, turning toward the king, "since its mandates led me to disobey your majesty's commands; but your majesty will forgive me, I hope, when you learn that I was anxious to preserve the honor of a lady."

      "Of a lady?" said the king, with some uneasiness.

      "Yes, sire."

      "A lady was the cause of this duel?"

      Manicamp bowed.

      "If the position of the lady in question warrants it," he said, "I shall not complain of your having acted with so much circumspection; on the contrary, indeed."

      "Sire, everything which concerns your majesty's household, or the household of your majesty's brother, is of importance in my eyes."

      "In my brother's household," repeated Louis XIV., with a slight hesitation. "The cause of the duel was a lady belonging to my brother's household, do you say?"

      "Or to Madame's."

      "Ah! to Madame's?"

      "Yes, sire."

      "Well—and this lady?"

      "Is one of the maids of honor of her royal highness, Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans."

      "For whom M. de Guiche fought—do you say?"

      "Yes, sire, and, this time, I tell no falsehood."

      Louis seemed restless and anxious. "Gentlemen," he said, turning toward the spectators of this scene, "will you have the goodness to retire for a moment? I wish to be alone with M. de Manicamp, I know he has some very important communications to make for his own justification, and which he will not venture to do before witnesses. … Put up your sword, Monsieur de Manicamp."

      Manicamp returned his sword to his belt.

      "The fellow decidedly has his wits about him," murmured the musketeer, taking Saint-Aignan by the arm, and withdrawing with him.

      "He will get out of it," said the latter in D'Artagnan's ear.

      "And with honor, too, comte."

      Manicamp cast a glance of recognition at Saint-Aignan and the captain, which passed unnoticed by the king.

      "Come, come," said D'Artagnan, as he left the room, "I had an indifferent opinion of the new generation. Well, I was mistaken after all, and there is some good in them, I perceive."

      Valot preceded the favorite and the captain, leaving the king and Manicamp alone in the cabinet.

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      The king, determined to be satisfied that no one was listening, went himself to the door, and then returned precipitately and placed himself opposite to Manicamp. "And now we are alone, Monsieur de Manicamp, explain yourself?"

      "With the greatest frankness, sire," replied the young man.

      "And, in the first place, pray understand," added the king, "that there is nothing to which I personally attach a greater importance than the honor of any lady."

      "That is the very reason, sire, why I endeavored to study your delicacy of sentiment and feeling."

      "Yes, I understand it all now. You say that it was one of the maids of honor of my sister-in-law who was the subject of dispute, and that the person in question, Guiche's adversary, the man, in point of fact, whom you will not name—"

      "But whom M. de Saint-Aignan will name, monsieur."

      "Yes; you say, however, that this man has insulted some one belonging to the household of Madame."

      "Yes, sire, Mademoiselle de la Valliere."

      "Ah!" said the king, as if he had expected the name, and yet as if its announcement had caused him a sudden pang; "ah! it was Mademoiselle de la Valliere who was insulted."

      "I do not say precisely that she was insulted, sire."

      "But at all events—"

      "I merely say that she was spoken of in terms far from respectful."

      "A man dares to speak in disrespectful terms of Mademoiselle de la Valliere, and yet you refuse to tell me the name of the insulter."

      "Sire, I thought it was quite understood that your majesty had abandoned the idea of making me denounce him."

      "Perfectly true, monsieur," returned the king, controlling his anger: "besides, I shall always know in sufficient time the name of the man whom I shall feel it my duty to punish."

      Manicamp perceived that they had returned to the question again. As for the king, he saw he had allowed himself to be hurried away a little too far, and he therefore continued: "And I will punish him—not because there is any question of Mademoiselle de La Valliere, although I esteem her very highly—but because a lady was the object of the quarrel. And I intend that ladies shall be respected at my court, and that quarrels shall be put a stop to altogether."

      Manicamp bowed.

      "And now, Monsieur de Manicamp," continued the king, "what was said about Mademoiselle de la Valliere?"

      "Cannot your majesty guess?"

      "I?"

      "Your majesty can imagine the character of the jests in which young men permit themselves to indulge."

      "They very probably said that she was in love with some one?" the king ventured to remark.

      "Probably so."

      "But Mademoiselle de la Valliere has a perfect right to love any one she pleases," said the king.

      "That is the very point De Guiche maintained."

      "And on account of which he fought, do you mean?"

      "Yes, sire, the very sole cause."

      The king colored. "And you do not know anything more, then?"

      "In what respect, sire?"

      "In the very interesting respect which you are now referring to."

      "What does your majesty wish to know?"

      "Why, the name of the man with whom La Valliere is in love, and whom De Guiche's adversary disputed her right to love."

      "Sire, I know nothing—I have heard nothing—and have learned nothing, even accidentally; but De Guiche is a noble-hearted fellow, and if, momentarily,

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