"Ill--"
"Very ill, say you? And of what malady?"
"It is feared that it may be the smallpox, sir," replied Porthos, desirous of taking his turn in the versation; "and what is rious is that it will certainly spoil his face."
"The smallpox! That''s a great story to tell me, Porthos! Sibsp;of the smallpox at his age! No, no; but wounded without doubt, killed, perhaps. Ah, if I knew! S''blood! Messieurs Musketeers, I will not have this haunting of bad places, this quarreling in the streets, this swordplay at the crossways; and above all, I will not have occasion given for the cardinal''s Guards, who are brave, quiet, skillful men who never put themlves in a position to be arrested, and who, besides, never allow themlves to be arrested, to laugh at you! I am sure of it--they would prefer dying on the spot to being arrested or taking babsp;a step. To save yourlves, to scamper away, to flee--that is good for the king''s Musketeers!"
Porthos and Aramis trembled with rage. They could willingly have strangled M. de Treville, if, at the bottom of all this, they had not felt it was the great love he bore them whibsp;made him speak thus. They stamped upon the carpet with their feet; they bit their lips till the blood came, and grasped the hilts of their swords with all their might. All without had heard, as we have said, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis called, and had guesd, from M. de Treville''s tone of voibsp;that he was very angry about something. Ten curious heads were glued to the tapestry and became pale with fury; for their ears, cloly applied to the door, did not lo a syllable of what he said, while their mouths repeated as he went on, the insulting expressions of the captain to all the people in the antechamber. In an instant, from the door of the et to the street gate, the whole hotel was boiling.
"Ah! The king''s Musketeers are arrested by the Guards of the cardinal, are they?" tinued M. de Treville, as furious at heart as his soldiers, but emphasizing his words and plunging them, one by one, so to say, like so many blows of a stiletto, into the bosoms of his auditors. "What! Six of his Eminence''s Guards arrest six of his Majesty''s Musketeers! MORBLEU! My part is taken! I will go straight to the louvre; I will give in my resignation as captain of the king''s Musketeers to take a lieutenanbsp;in the cardinal''s Guards, and if he refus me, MORBLEU! I will turn abbe."