"What! the king sent you to learn—"
"Of course; but don't let us speak of that any more."
"Not speak of it!" said Porthos; "on the contrary, we will speak of it; and so the king knew that we were fortifying Belle-Isle?"
"Of course; does not the king know everything?"
"But he did not know who was fortifying it."
"No, he only suspected, from what he had been told of the nature of the works, that it was some celebrated soldier or another."
"The devil!" said Porthos, "if I had only known that!"
"You would not have run away from Vannes as you did, perhaps?"
"No; what did you say when you couldn't find me?"
"My dear fellow, I reflected."