“The letter was lost,” replied his Eminence; “yes, I know that. But M. de Tréville is a skilled physiognomist, who knows men at first sight; and he placed you in the company of his brother-in-law, M. des Essart, leaving you to hope that one day or other you should enter the musketeers.”

“Monseigneur is correctly informed,” said d’Artagnan.

“Since that time many things have happened to you. You were walking one day behind the Chartreux, when it would have been better if you had been elsewhere. Then you took with your friends a journey to the waters of Forges; they stopped on the road, but you continued yours. That is all very simple: you had business in England.”

“Monseigneur,” said d’Artagnan, quite confused, “I went⁠—”