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service to her. Speak, speak!"
"Take this letter," said d'Artagnan.
"This letter! From whom comes this letter?"
"From her Majesty, as I think."
"From her Majesty!" said Buckingham, becoming so pale that d'Artagnan feared he would faint as he broke the seal.
"What is this rent?" said he, showing d'Artagnan a place where it had been pierced through.
"Ah," said d'Artagnan, "I did not see that; it was the sword of the Comte de Wardes which made that hole, when he gave me a good thrust in the breast."
"You are wounded?" asked Buckingham, as he opened the letter.
"Oh, nothing but a scratch," said d'Artagnan.
"Just heaven, what have I read?" cried the duke. "Patrick, remain here, or rather join the king, wherever he may be, and tell his Majesty that I humbly beg him to excuse me, but an affair of the greatest importance recalls me to London. Come, monsieur, come!" and both set off towards the capital at full gallop.
21 THE COUNTESS DE WINTER
As they rode along, the duke endeavored to draw from d'Artagnan, not all that had happened, but what d'Artagnan himself knew. By adding all that he heard from the mouth of the young man to his own remembrances, he was enabled to form a pretty exact idea of a position of the seriousness of which, for the rest, the queen's letter, short but explicit, gave him the clue. But that which astonished him most was that the cardinal, so deeply interested in preventing this young man from setting his foot in England, had not succeeded in arresting him on the road. It was then, upon the