“Good,” thought D’Artagnan; “we must look about us; he’s going to play us a trick.”
“I offered you your liberty,” continued the minister; “will you take it? Before an hour has passed you will be discovered, arrested, obliged to kill me, which would be a crime unworthy of loyal gentlemen like you.”
“He is right,” thought Athos.
And, like every other reflection passing in a mind that entertained none but noble thoughts, this feeling was expressed in his eyes.
“And therefore,” said D’Artagnan, to clip the hope which Athos’s tacit adhesion had imparted to Mazarin, “we shall not proceed to that violence save in the last extremity.”
“If on the contrary,” resumed Mazarin, “you accept your liberty——”
“Why you, my lord, might take it away from us in less than five minutes afterward; and from my knowledge of you I believe you will so take it away from us.”
“No—on the faith of a cardinal. You do not believe me?”
“My lord, I never believe cardinals who are not priests.”
“Well, on the faith of a minister.”