well! I have still Pierrefonds left, and there I shall find
the best man and the best filled coffer. And that is all I
want, for I have an idea of my own."

We will spare our readers the prosaic incidents of
D'Artagnan's journey, which terminated on the morning of the
third day within sight of Pierrefonds. D'Artagnan came by
the way of Nanteuil-le-Hardouin and Crepy. At a distance he
perceived the Castle of Louis of Orleans, which, having
become part of the crown domain, was kept by an old
concierge. This was one of those marvelous manors of the
middle ages, with walls twenty feet in thickness, and a
hundred in height.

D'Artagnan rode slowly past its walls, measured its towers
with his eye and descended into the valley. From afar he
looked down upon the chateau of Porthos, situated on the
shores of a small lake, and contiguous to a magnificent
forest. It was the same place we have already had the honor
of describing to our readers; we shall therefore satisfy
ourselves with naming it. The first thing D'Artagnan
perceived after the fine trees, the May sun gilding the
sides of the green hills, the long rows of feather-topped
trees which stretched out towards Compiegne, was a large
rolling box, pushed forward by two servants and dragged by
two others. In this box there was an enormous green-and-gold
thing, which went along the smiling glades of the park, thus
dragged and pushed. This thing, at a distance, could not be
distinguished, and signified absolutely nothing; nearer, it
was a hogshead muffled in gold-bound green cloth; when