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Rh J18 LOUISE DE LA VALLIERE. self, I shall most eagerly do so." "The name of Monsieur de Guiche's adversary?" "Oh, oh!" murmured D'Artagnan, "are we going to take Louis XIII. as a model?" "Sire!" said Manicamp, with an accent of reproach. "You will not name him, it appears, then?" said the king. "Sire, I do not know him." "Bravo!" murmured D'Artagnan. "Monsieur de Manicamp, hand your sword to the captain." Manicamp bowed very gracefully, unbuckled his sword, smiling as he did so, and handed it for the musketeer to take. But St. Aignan advanced hurriedly between him and D'Artagnan. "Sire," he said, "will your majesty permit me to say a word?" "Do so," said the king, delighted perhaps at the bottom of his heart for some one to step between him and the wrath which he felt had carried him too far. "Manicamp, you are a brave man, and the king will ap- preciate your conduct; but to wish to serve your friends too well, is to destroy them. Manicamp, you know the name the king asks you for?" "It is perfectly true — I do know it." "You will give it up, then?" "If I felt I ought to have mentioned it, I should have already done so." "Then I will tell it, for I am not so extremely sensitive on such points of honor as you are. "You are at liberty to do so, but it seems to me, how- ever " "Oh! a truce to magnanimity; I will not permit you to go to the Bastile in that way. Do you speak, or I will." Manicamp was keen-witted enough, and perfectly under- stood that he had done quitp sufficient to produce a good opinion of his conduct; it was now only a question of per- severing in such a manner as to regain the good graces of the king. "Speak, monsieur," he said to St. Aignan; "I have on my own behalf done all that my conscience told me to do, and it must have been very importunate," he added, turn- ing toward the king, "since its mandates led me to disobey your majesty's commands; but your majesty will forgive me, I hope, when you learn that I was anxious to preserve the honor of a lady."
 * If it be a means of which a gentleman may avail him-