"I have your word, then?" said D'Artagnan.
"Yes. I will fight heart and soul for the cardinal; but--but he must make me a baron."
"Oh, that's settled already!" said D'Artagnan. "I'll answer for your barony."
With that he had his horse saddled, and rode on to the castle of Bragelonne. Athos was visibly moved at the sight of D'Artagnan, and rushed towards him and clasped him in his arms. D'Artagnan, equally moved, held him closely, while tears stood in his eyes. Athos seemed scarcely aged at all, in spite of his eight-and-forty years; but there was a greater dignity about his face. Formerly, too, he had been a heavy drinker, but now no signs of excess disturbed the calm serenity of his countenance. The presence of his son, whom he called Raoul--a boy of fifteen--seemed to explain to D'Artagnan the regenerated existence of Athos.
Deeply as the heart of Athos was stirred at meeting his old comrade-in-arms, and sincere as his attachment was to D'Artagnan, the Count de la Fère would have nothing to do with any plan for helping Mazarin.
D'Artagnan returned alone to await Porthos in Paris. The same night Athos and his son also left for Paris.
II.--The Four Set Out for England
Queen Henrietta of England, daughter of Henry IV. of France and wife of King Charles I., was lodged in the Louvre, while her husband lost his crown in the civil war. The queen had appealed to Mazarin either to send assistance to Charles I., or to receive him in France, and the cardinal had declined both propositions. Then it was that an Englishman, Lord de Winter, who had come to Paris to get help, appealed to Athos, whom he had known twenty years earlier, to come to England and fight for the king.
Athos and Aramis at once responded, and waited on the queen, who received them in the large empty rooms--left unfurnished by the avarice of the cardinal--allotted to her in the Louvre.
"Gentlemen," said the queen, "a few years ago I had around me knights, treasure, and armies. To-day look around, and know that in order to accomplish a plan which is dearer to me than life I have only Lord de Winter, the friend of twenty years, and you, gentlemen, whom I see for the first time, and whom I know but as my countrymen."