Unfortunately, there was one circumstance which created a powerful obstacle to the accomplishment of this threat; which was, as we have related, that his sword had been in his first conflict broken in two, and which he had entirely forgotten.  Hence, it resulted when d’Artagnan proceeded to draw his sword in earnest, he found himself purely and simply armed with a stump of a sword about eight or ten inches in length, which the host had carefully placed in the scabbard.  As to the rest of the blade, the master had slyly put that on one side to make himself a larding pin.

But this deception would probably not have stopped our fiery young man if the host had not reflected that the reclamation which his guest made was perfectly just.

“But, after all,” said he, lowering the point of his spit, “where is this letter?”

“Yes, where is this letter?” cried d’Artagnan.  “In the first place, I warn you that that letter is for Monsieur de Treville, and it must be found, he will know how to find it.”

His threat completed the intimidation of the host.  After the king and the cardinal, M. de Treville was the man whose name was perhaps most frequently repeated by the military, and even by citizens.  There was, to be sure, Father Joseph, but his name was never pronounced but with a subdued voice, such was the terror inspired by his Gray Eminence, as the cardinal’s familiar was called.

Throwing down his spit, and ordering his wife to do the same with her broom handle, and the servants with their sticks, he set the first example of commencing an earnest search for the lost letter.

“Does the letter contain anything valuable?” demanded the host, after a few minutes of useless investigation.

“Zounds!  I think it does indeed!” cried the Gascon, who reckoned upon this letter for making his way at court.  “It contained my fortune!”

“Bills upon Spain?” asked the disturbed host.

“Bills upon his Majesty’s private treasury,” answered d’Artagnan, who, reckoning upon entering into the king’s service in consequence of this recommendation, believed he could make this somewhat hazardous reply without telling of a falsehood.

“The devil!” cried the host, at his wit’s end.

“But it’s of no importance,” continued d’Artagnan, with natural assurance; “it’s of no importance.  The money is nothing; that letter was everything.  I would rather have lost a thousand pistoles than have lost it.”  He would not have risked more if he had said twenty thousand; but a certain juvenile modesty restrained him.

A ray of light all at once broke upon the mind of the host as he was giving himself to the devil upon finding nothing.

“That letter is not lost!” cried he.

“What!” cried d’Artagnan.

“No, it has been stolen from you.”

“Stolen?  By whom?”

“By the gentleman who was here yesterday.  He came down into the kitchen, where your doublet was.  He remained there some time alone.  I would lay a wager he has stolen it.”