THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK. 425 Oh, madame, I should better have liked to see you decked with flowers in the mansion of the Comte de la Fere. You would have wept less — they, too — I, too!" '^Monsieur!'* she said, sobbing. "For it is you," added this pitiless friend of the dead —
- ^it is you who have laid these two men in the grave."
- 0h, spare me!"
- God forbid, madame, that I should offend a woman, or
that I should make her weep in vain; but I must say that the place of the murder fr t« ^^^- np^^^ ^bp grra vft of her yictims. " She wished to reply.
- What I now tell you," added he coldly, I told the
king." She clasped her hands. ^*I know,^' said she, *^I have caused the death of the Vi- comte de Bragelonne." "Ah! you know it?" "The news arrived at court yesterday. I have traveled during the night forty leagues to come and ask pardon of the comte, whom I supposed to be still living, and to sup- plicate God, upon the tomb of Eaoul, that He would send me all the misfortunes I have merited, except a single one. Now, monsieur, I know that the death of the son has killed the father; I have two crimes to reproach myself with; I have two punishments to look for from God." "I will repeat to you, mademoiselle," said D'Artagnan, "what Monsieur de Bragelonne said of you at Antibes, when he already meditated death: *If pride and coquetry have misled her, I pardon her while despising her. If love has produced her error, I pardon her, swearing that no one could have loved her as I have done.' " "You know," interrupted Louise, "that for my love I was about to sacrifice myself; you know whether I suffered when you met me lost, dying, abandoned. Well, never have I suffered so much as now; because then I hoped, I desired — now I have nothing to wish for; because this death drags away all my joy into the tomb; because I can no longer dare to love without remorse, and I feel that he whom I love — oh! that is the law — will repay me with the tortures I have made others undergo." D'Artagnan made no reply; he was too well convinced she was not mistaken. "Well, then," added she, "dear Monsieur d'Artagnan,
do not overwhelm me to-day, I again implore you. I am
