my hands, slid down into the abyss. When I saw myself hanging over the
dark pool, when I saw the sky lessening above my head, a cold shudder
came over me, a chill fear got the better of me, I was seized with
giddiness, and the hair rose on my head; but my strong will still reigned
supreme over all the terror and disquietude. I gained the water, and at
once plunged into it, holding on by one hand, while I immersed the other
and seized the dear letter, which, alas! came in two in my grasp. I
concealed the two fragments in my body-coat, and, helping myself with my
feet against the sides of the pit, and clinging on with my hands, agile
and vigorous as I was, and, above all, pressed for time, I regained the
brink, drenching it as I touched it with the water that streamed off me.
I was no sooner out of the well with my prize, than I rushed into the
sunlight, and took refuge in a kind of shrubbery at the bottom of the
garden. As I entered my hiding-place, the bell which resounded when the
great gate was opened, rang. It was my preceptor come back again. I had
but just time. I calculated that it would take ten minutes before he
would gain my place of concealment, even if, guessing where I was, he
came straight to it; and twenty if he were obliged to look for me. But
this was time enough to allow me to read the cherished letter, whose
fragments I hastened to unite again. The writing was already fading, but
I managed to decipher it all.

"And will you tell me what you read therein, monseigneur?" asked Aramis,
deeply interested.

"Quite enough, monsieur, to see that my tutor was a man of noble rank,
and that Perronnette, without being a lady of quality, was far better
than a servant; and also to perceived that I must myself be high-born,
since the queen, Anne of Austria, and Mazarin, the prime minister,
commended me so earnestly to their care." Here the young man paused,