Then, turning towards the princess:  “Madam,” said he, “your royal highness is a daughter of France; and in that quality I hope to see you again in Paris.  One of my happy days will be on that on which your royal highness shall give me any command whatever, thus proving to me that you have not forgotten the recommendations of your august brother.”  And he bowed respectfully to the young princess, who gave him her hand to kiss with a right royal grace.

“Ah! madam,” said Buckingham, in a subdued voice, “what can a man do to obtain a similar favor from your royal highness?”

“Dame! my lord,” replied Henrietta, “ask Monsieur d’Artagnan; he will tell you.”

Chapter XXXVI: 
How D’Artagnan drew, as a Fairy would have done, a Country-Seat from a
Deal Box.

The king’s words regarding the wounded pride of Monk had inspired D’Artagnan with no small portion of apprehension.  The lieutenant had had, all his life, the great art of choosing his enemies; and when he had found them implacable and invincible, it was when he had not been able, under any pretense, to make them otherwise.  But points of view change greatly in the course of a life.  It is a magic lantern, of which the eye of man every year changes the aspects.  It results that from the last day of a year on which we saw white, to the first day of the year on which we shall see black, there is the interval of but a single night.

Now, D’Artagnan, when he left Calais with his ten scamps, would have hesitated as little in attacking a Goliath, a Nebuchadnezzar, or a Holofernes, as he would in crossing swords with a recruit or caviling with a land-lady.  Then he resembled the sparrow-hawk, which, when fasting, will attack a ram.  Hunger is blind.  But D’Artagnan satisfied — D’Artagnan rich — D’Artagnan a conqueror — D’Artagnan proud of so difficult a triumph — D’Artagnan had too much to lose not to reckon, figure by figure, with probable misfortune.

His thoughts were employed, therefore, all the way on the road from his presentation, with one thing, and that was, how he should conciliate a man like Monk, a man whom Charles himself, king as he was, conciliated with difficulty; for, scarcely established, the protected might again stand in need of the protector, and would, consequently, not refuse him, such being the case, the petty satisfaction of transporting M. d’Artagnan, or of confining him in one of the Middlesex prisons, or drowning him a little on his passage from Dover to Boulogne.  Such sorts of satisfaction kings are accustomed to render to viceroys without disagreeable consequences.

It would not be at all necessary for the king to be active in that contrepartie of the play in which Monk should take his revenge.  The part of the king would be confined to simply pardoning the viceroy of Ireland all he should undertake against D’Artagnan.  Nothing more was necessary to place the conscience of the Duke of Albemarle at rest than a te absolvo said with a laugh, or the scrawl of “Charles the King,” traced at the foot of a parchment; and with these two words pronounced, and these two words written, poor D’Artagnan was forever crushed beneath the ruins of his imagination.