Chapter 26

Chapter XXVI
The Last Adieux
Raoul uttered a cry, and affectionately embraced Porthos. Aramis and Athos embraced like old men; and this embrace itself was a question for Aramis, who immediately said, “My friend, we have not long to remain with you.”

“Ah!” said the count.

“Only time to tell you of my good fortune,” interrupted Porthos.

“Ah!” said Raoul.

Athos looked silently at Aramis, whose sombre air had already appeared to him very little in harmony with the good news of which Porthos spoke.

“What is the good fortune that has happened to you? Let us hear it,” said Raoul, with a smile.

“The King has made me a duke,” said the worthy Porthos, with an air of mystery, in the ear of the young man; “a duke by brevet.”

But the asides of Porthos were always loud enough to be heard by everybody. His murmurs were in the diapason of ordinary roaring. Athos heard him, and uttered an exclamation which made Aramis start. The latter took Athos by the arm, and after having asked Porthos’s permission to say a word to his friend in private. “My dear Athos,” he began, “you see me overwhelmed with grief.”

“With grief, my dear friend?” cried the count.

“In two words. I have raised a conspiracy against the King; that conspiracy has failed, and at this moment I am doubtless pursued.”

“You are pursued! a conspiracy! Eh! my friend, what do you tell me?”

“A sad truth. I am entirely ruined.”

“Well, but Porthos- this title of duke- what does all that mean?”

“That is the subject of my severest pain; that is the deepest of my wounds. I have, believing in an infallible success, drawn Porthos into my conspiracy. He has thrown himself into it as you know he would do, with all his strength, without knowing what he was about; and now he is as much compromised as myself,- as completely ruined as I am.”

“Good God!” and Athos turned towards Porthos, who was smiling complacently.

“I must make you acquainted with the whole. Listen to me,” continued Aramis; and he related the history as we know it. Athos, during the recital, several times felt the sweat break from his forehead. “It was a great idea,” said he; “but a great error.”

“For which I am punished, Athos.”

“Therefore I will not tell you my entire thought.”

“Tell it, nevertheless.”

“It is a crime.”

“Capital, I know it is; high treason.”

“Porthos poor Porthos!”

“What should I have done? Success, as I have told you, was