"Are you satisfied, gentlemen?" asked Mazarin.
"I think so, indeed; we should be hard to please if we were not. Deuce
take it! three poor gentlemen escorted by a prince of the church! Ah!
apropos, my lord! you remarked that we were all active, vigorous and
armed."
"Yes."
"You are mistaken. Monsieur du Vallon and I are the only two who are
armed. The count is not; and should we meet with one of your patrol we
must defend ourselves."
"’Tis true."
"Where can we find another sword?" asked Porthos.
"My lord," said D’Artagnan, "will lend his, which is of no use to him,
to the Comte de la Fere."
"Willingly," said the cardinal; "I will even ask the count to keep it
for my sake."
"I promise you, my lord, never to part with it," replied Athos.
"Well, well," cried D’Artagnan, "this reconciliation is truly touching;
have you not tears in your eyes, Porthos?"
"Yes," said Porthos; "but I do not know if it is feeling or the wind
that makes me weep; I think it is the wind."
"Now climb up, Athos, quickly," said D’Artagnan. Athos, assisted by
Porthos, who lifted him up like a feather, arrived at the top.
"Now, jump down, Athos."
Athos jumped and disappeared on the other side of the wall.
"Are you on the ground?" asked D’Artagnan.
"Yes."
"Without accident?"
"Perfectly safe and sound."
"Porthos, whilst I get up, watch the cardinal. No, I don’t want your
help, watch the cardinal."
"I am watching," said Porthos. "Well?"
"You are right; it is more difficult than I thought. Lend me your
back--but don’t let the cardinal go."
Porthos lent him his back and D’Artagnan was soon on the summit of the
wall, where he seated himself.
Mazarin pretended to laugh.
"Are you there?" asked Porthos.
"Yes, my friend; and now----"
"Now, what?" asked Porthos.
"Now give me the cardinal up here; if he makes any noise stifle him."
Mazarin wished to call out, but Porthos held him tight and passed him to
D’Artagnan, who seized him by the neck and made him sit down by him;
then in a menacing tone, he said:
"Sir! jump directly down, close to Monsieur de la Fere, or, on the honor
of a gentleman, I’ll kill you!"
"Monsieur, monsieur," cried Mazarin, "you are breaking your word to me!"
"I--did I promise you anything, my lord?"
Mazarin groaned.
"You are free," he said, "through me; your liberty was my ransom."
"Agreed; but the ransom of that immense treasure buried under the
gallery, to which one descends on pushing a spring hidden in the wall,
which causes a tub to turn, revealing a staircase--must not one speak of
that a little, my lord?"
"Diavolo!" cried Mazarin, almost choked, and clasping his hands; "I am a
lost and ruined man!"
But without listening to his protestations of alarm, D’Artagnan slipped
him gently down into the arms of Athos, who stood immovable at the
bottom of the wall.
Porthos next made an effort which shook the solid wall, and by the aid
of his friend’s hand gained the summit.
"I didn’t understand it all," he said, "but I understand now; how droll
it is!"
"You think so? so much the better; but that it may prove laughter-worthy
even to the end, let us not lose time." And he jumped off the wall.
Porthos did the same.
"Attend to monsieur le cardinal, gentlemen," said D’Artagnan; "for
myself, I will reconnoitre."
The Gascon then drew his sword and marched as avant guard.
"My lord," he said, "which way do we go? Think well of your reply, for
should your eminence be mistaken, there might ensue most grave results
for all of us."
"Along the wall, sir," said Mazarin, "there will be no danger of losing
yourselves."
The three friends hastened on, but in a short time were obliged to
slacken the pace. The cardinal could not keep up with them, though with
every wish to do so.
Suddenly D’Artagnan touched something warm, which moved.
"Stop! a horse!" he cried; "I have found a horse!"
"And I, likewise," said Athos.
"I, too," said Porthos, who, faithful to the instructions, still held
the cardinal’s arm.
"There’s luck, my lord! just as you were complaining of being tired and
obliged to walk."
But as he spoke the barrel of a pistol was presented at his breast and
these words were pronounced:
"Touch it not!"
"Grimaud!" he cried; "Grimaud! what art thou about? Why, thou art posted
here by Heaven!"
"No, sir," said the honest servant, "it was Monsieur Aramis who posted
me here to take care of the horses."
"Is Aramis here?"
"Yes, sir; he has been here since yesterday."
"What are you doing?"
"On the watch----"
"What! Aramis here?" cried Athos.
"At the lesser gate of the castle; he’s posted there."
"Are you a large party?"
"Sixty."
"Let him know."
"This moment, sir."
And believing that no one could execute the commission better than
himself, Grimaud set off at full speed; whilst, enchanted at being all
together again, the friends awaited his return.
There was no one in the whole group in a bad humor except Cardinal
Mazarin.
87. Thinking that Porthos will be at last a Baron, and D’Artagnan a
Captain.
At the expiration of ten minutes Aramis arrived, accompanied by Grimaud
and eight or ten followers. He was excessively delighted and threw
himself into his friends’ arms.
"You are free, my brothers! free without my aid! and I shall have
succeeded in doing nothing for you in spite of all my efforts."
"Do not be unhappy, dear friend, on that account; if you have done
nothing as yet, you will do something soon," replied Athos.
"I had well concerted my plans," pursued Aramis; "the coadjutor gave me
sixty men; twenty guard the walls of the park, twenty the road from
Rueil to Saint Germain, twenty are dispersed in the woods. Thus I was
able, thanks to the strategic disposition of my forces, to intercept two
couriers from Mazarin to the queen."
Mazarin listened intently.
"But," said D’Artagnan, "I trust that you honorably sent them back to
monsieur le cardinal!"
"Ah, yes!" said Aramis, "toward him I should be very likely to practice
such delicacy of sentiment! In one of the despatches the cardinal
declares to the queen that the treasury is empty and that her majesty
has no more money. In the other he announces that he is about to
transport his prisoners to Melun, since Rueil seemed to him not
sufficiently secure. You can understand, dear friend, with what hope I
was inspired by that last letter. I placed myself in ambuscade with my
sixty men; I encircled the castle; the riding horses I entrusted to
Grimaud and I awaited your coming out, which I did not expect till
to-morrow, and I didn’t hope to free you without a skirmish. You are
free to-night, without fighting; so much the better! How did you manage
to escape that scoundrel Mazarin? You must have much reason to complain
of him."
"Not very much," said D’Artagnan.
"Really!"
"I might even say that we have some reason to praise him."
"Impossible!"
"Yes, really; it is owing to him that we are free."
"Owing to him?"
"Yes, he had us conducted into the orangery by Monsieur Bernouin, his
valet-de-chambre, and from there we followed him to visit the Comte de
la Fere. Then he offered us our liberty and we accepted it. He even went
so far as to show us the way out; he led us to the park wall, which we
climbed over without accident, and then we fell in with Grimaud."
"Well!" exclaimed Aramis, "this will reconcile me to him; but I wish he
were here that I might tell him that I did not believe him capable of so
noble an act."
"My lord," said D’Artagnan, no longer able to contain himself, "allow me
to introduce to you the Chevalier d’Herblay, who wishes--as you may have
heard--to offer his congratulations to your eminence."
And he retired, discovering Mazarin, who was in great confusion, to the
astonished gaze of Aramis.
"Ho! ho!" exclaimed the latter, "the cardinal! a glorious prize! Halloo!
halloo! friends! to horse! to horse!"
Several horsemen ran quickly to him.
"Zounds!" cried Aramis, "I may have done some good; so, my lord, deign
to receive my most respectful homage! I will lay a wager that ’twas that
Saint Christopher, Porthos, who performed this feat! Apropos! I
forgot----" and he gave some orders in a low voice to one of the
horsemen.
"I think it will be wise to set off," said D’Artagnan.
"Yes; but I am expecting some one, a friend of Athos."
"A friend!" exclaimed the count.
"And here he comes, by Jupiter! galloping through the bushes."
"The count! the count!" cried a young voice that made Athos start.
"Raoul! Raoul!" he ejaculated.
For one moment the young man forgot his habitual respect--he threw
himself on his father’s neck.
"Look, my lord cardinal," said Aramis, "would it not have been a pity to
have separated men who love each other as we love? Gentlemen," he
continued, addressing the cavaliers, who became more and more numerous
every instant; "gentlemen, encircle his eminence, that you may show him
the greater honor. He will, indeed give us the favor of his company; you
will, I hope, be grateful for it; Porthos, do not lose sight of his
eminence."
Aramis then joined Athos and D’Artagnan, who were consulting together.
"Come," said D’Artagnan, after a conference of five minutes’ duration,
"let us begin our journey."
"Where are we to go?" asked Porthos.
"To your house, dear Porthos, at Pierrefonds; your fine chateau is
worthy of affording its princely hospitality to his eminence; it is,
likewise, well situated--neither too near Paris, nor too far from it; we
can establish a communication between it and the capital with great
facility. Come, my lord, you shall be treated like a prince, as you
are."
"A fallen prince!" exclaimed Mazarin, piteously.
"The chances of war," said Athos, "are many, but be assured we shall
take no improper advantage of them."
"No, but we shall make use of them," said D’Artagnan.
The rest of the night was employed by these cavaliers in traveling with
the wonderful rapidity of former days. Mazarin, still sombre and
pensive, permitted himself to be dragged along in this way; it looked a
race of phantoms. At dawn twelve leagues had been passed without drawing
rein; half the escort were exhausted and several horses fell down.
"Horses, nowadays, are not what they were formerly," observed Porthos;
"everything degenerates."
"I have sent Grimaud to Dammartin," said Aramis. "He is to bring us five
fresh horses--one for his eminence, four for us. We, at least, must keep
close to monseigneur; the rest of the start will rejoin us later. Once
beyond Saint Denis we shall have nothing to fear."
Grimaud, in fact, brought back five horses. The nobleman to whom he
applied, being a friend of Porthos, was very ready, not to sell them, as
was proposed, but to lend them. Ten minutes later the escort stopped at
Ermenonville, but the four friends went on with well sustained ardor,
guarding Mazarin carefully. At noon they rode into the avenue of
Pierrefonds.
"Ah!" said Mousqueton, who had ridden by the side of D’Artagnan without
speaking a word on the journey, "you may think what you will, sir, but I
can breathe now for the first time since my departure from Pierrefonds;"
and he put his horse to a gallop to announce to the other servants the
arrival of Monsieur du Vallon and his friends.
"We are four of us," said D’Artagnan; "we must relieve each other in
mounting guard over my lord and each of us must watch three hours at a
time. Athos is going to examine the castle, which it will be necessary
to render impregnable in case of siege; Porthos will see to the
provisions and Aramis to the troops of the garrison. That is to say,
Athos will be chief engineer, Porthos purveyor-in-general, and Aramis
governor of the fortress."
Meanwhile, they gave up to Mazarin the handsomest room in the chateau.
"Gentlemen," he said, when he was in his room, "you do not expect, I
presume, to keep me here a long time incognito?"
"No, my lord," replied the Gascon; "on the contrary, we think of
announcing very soon that we have you here."
"Then you will be besieged."
"We expect it."
"And what shall you do?"
"Defend ourselves. Were the late Cardinal Richelieu alive he would tell
you a certain story of the Bastion Saint Gervais, which we four, with
our four lackeys and twelve dead men, held out against a whole army."
"Such feats, sir, are done once--and never repeated."
"However, nowadays there’s no need of so much heroism. To-morrow the
army of Paris will be summoned, the day after it will be here! The field
of battle, instead, therefore, of being at Saint Denis or at Charenton,
will be near Compiegne or Villars-Cotterets."
"The prince will vanquish you, as he has always done."
"’Tis possible; my lord; but before an engagement ensues we shall move
your eminence to another castle belonging to our friend Du Vallon, who
has three. We will not expose your eminence to the chances of war."
"Come," answered Mazarin, "I see it will be necessary for me to
capitulate."
"Before a siege?"
"Yes; the conditions will be better than afterward."
"Ah, my lord! as to conditions, you would soon see how moderate and
reasonable we are!"
"Come, now, what are your conditions?"
"Rest yourself first, my lord, and we--we will reflect."
"I do not need rest, gentlemen; I need to know whether I am among
enemies or friends."
"Friends, my lord! friends!"
"Well, then, tell me at once what you want, that I may see if any
arrangement be possible. Speak, Comte de la Fere!"
"My lord," replied Athos, "for myself I have nothing to demand. For
France, were I to specify my wishes, I should have too much. I beg you
to excuse me and propose to the chevalier."
And Athos, bowing, retired and remained leaning against the mantelpiece,
a spectator of the scene.
"Speak, then, chevalier!" said the cardinal. "What do you want? Nothing
ambiguous, if you please. Be clear, short and precise."
"As for me," replied Aramis, "I have in my pocket the very programme of
the conditions which the deputation--of which I formed one--went
yesterday to Saint Germain to impose on you. Let us consider first the
ancient rights. The demands in that programme must be granted."
"We were almost agreed on those," replied Mazarin; "let us pass on to
private and personal stipulations."
"You suppose, then, that there are some?" said Aramis, smiling.
"I do not suppose that you will all be quite so disinterested as
Monsieur de la Fere," replied the cardinal, bowing to Athos.
"My lord, you are right, and I am glad to see that you do justice to the
count at last. The count has a mind above vulgar desires and earthly
passions. He is a proud soul--he is a man by himself! You are right--he
is worth us all, and we avow it to you!"
"Aramis," said Athos, "are you jesting?"
"No, no, dear friend; I state only what we all know. You are right; it
is not you alone this matter concerns, but my lord and his unworthy
servant, myself."
"Well, then, what do you require besides the general conditions before
recited?"
"I require, my lord, that Normandy should be given to Madame de
Longueville, with five hundred thousand francs and full absolution. I
require that his majesty should deign to be godfather to the child she
has just borne; and that my lord, after having been present at the
christening, should go to proffer his homage to our Holy Father the
Pope."
"That is, you wish me to lay aside my ministerial functions, to quit
France and be an exile."
"I wish his eminence to become pope on the first opportunity, allowing
me then the right of demanding full indulgences for myself and my
friends."
Mazarin made a grimace which was quite indescribable, and then turned to
D’Artagnan.
"And you, sir?" he said.
"I, my lord," answered the Gascon, "I differ from Monsieur d’Herblay
entirely as to the last point, though I agree with him on the first. Far
from wishing my lord to quit Paris, I hope he will stay there and
continue to be prime minister, as he is a great statesman. I shall try
also to help him to down the Fronde, but on one condition--that he
sometimes remembers the king’s faithful servants and gives the first
vacant company of musketeers to a man that I could name. And you,
Monsieur du Vallon----"
"Yes, you, sir! Speak, if you please," said Mazarin.
"As for me," answered Porthos, "I wish my lord cardinal, in order to do
honor to my house, which gives him an asylum, would in remembrance of
this adventure erect my estate into a barony, with a promise to confer
that order on one of my particular friends, whenever his majesty next
creates peers."
"You know, sir, that before receiving the order one must submit proofs."
"My friends will submit them. Besides, should it be necessary,
monseigneur will show him how that formality may be avoided."
Mazarin bit his lips; the blow was direct and he replied rather dryly:
"All this appears to me to be ill conceived, disjointed, gentlemen; for
if I satisfy some I shall displease others. If I stay in Paris I cannot
go to Rome; if I became pope I could not continue to be prime minister;
and it is only by continuing prime minister that I can make Monsieur
d’Artagnan a captain and Monsieur du Vallon a baron."
"True," said Aramis, "so, as I am in a minority, I withdraw my
proposition, so far as it relates to the voyage to Rome and
monseigneur’s resignation."
"I am to remain minister, then?" said Mazarin.
"You remain minister; that is understood," said D’Artagnan; "France
needs you."
"And I desist from my pretensions," said Aramis. "His eminence will
continue to be prime minister and her majesty’s favorite, if he will
grant to me and my friends what we demand for France and for ourselves."
"Occupy yourselves with your own affairs, gentlemen, and let France
settle matters as she will with me," resumed Mazarin.
"Ho! ho!" replied Aramis. "The Frondeurs will have a treaty and your
eminence must sign it before us, promising at the same time to obtain
the queen’s consent to it."
"I can answer only for myself," said Mazarin. "I cannot answer for the
queen. Suppose her majesty refuses?"
"Oh!" said D’Artagnan, "monseigneur knows very well that her majesty
refuses him nothing."
"Here, monseigneur," said Aramis, "is the treaty proposed by the
deputation of Frondeurs. Will your eminence please read and examine?"
"I am acquainted with it."
"Sign it, then."
"Reflect, gentlemen, that a signature given under circumstances like the
present might be regarded as extorted by violence."
"Monseigneur will be at hand to testify that it was freely given."
"Suppose I refuse?"
"Then," said D’Artagnan, "your eminence must expect the consequences of
a refusal."
"Would you dare to touch a cardinal?"
"You have dared, my lord, to imprison her majesty’s musketeers."
"The queen will revenge me, gentlemen."
"I do not think so, although inclination might lead her to do so, but we
shall take your eminence to Paris, and the Parisians will defend us."
"How uneasy they must be at this moment at Rueil and Saint Germain,"
said Aramis. "How they must be asking, ’Where is the cardinal?’ ’What
has become of the minister?’ ’Where has the favorite gone?’ How they
must be looking for monseigneur in all corners! What comments must be
made; and if the Fronde knows that monseigneur has disappeared, how the
Fronde must triumph!"
"It is frightful," murmured Mazarin.
"Sign the treaty, then, monseigneur," said Aramis.
"Suppose the queen should refuse to ratify it?"
"Ah! nonsense!" cried D’Artagnan, "I can manage so that her majesty will
receive me well; I know an excellent method."
"What?"
"I shall take her majesty the letter in which you tell her that the
finances are exhausted."
"And then?" asked Mazarin, turning pale.
"When I see her majesty embarrassed, I shall conduct her to Rueil, make
her enter the orangery and show her a certain spring which turns a box."
"Enough, sir," muttered the cardinal, "you have said enough; where is
the treaty?"
"Here it is," replied Aramis. "Sign, my lord," and he gave him a pen.
Mazarin arose, walked some moments, thoughtful, but not dejected.
"And when I have signed," he said, "what is to be my guarantee?"
"My word of honor, sir," said Athos.
Mazarin started, turned toward the Comte de la Fere, and looking for an
instant at that grand and honest countenance, took the pen.
"It is sufficient, count," he said, and signed the treaty.
"And now, Monsieur d’Artagnan," he said, "prepare to set off for Saint
Germain and take a letter from me to the queen."
88. Shows how with Threat and Pen more is effected than by the Sword.
D’Artagnan knew his part well; he was aware that opportunity has a
forelock only for him who will take it and he was not a man to let it go
by him without seizing it. He soon arranged a prompt and certain manner
of traveling, by sending relays of horses to Chantilly, so that he might
be in Paris in five or six hours. But before setting out he reflected
that for a lad of intelligence and experience he was in a singular
predicament, since he was proceeding toward uncertainty and leaving
certainty behind him.
"In fact," he said, as he was about to mount and start on his dangerous
mission, "Athos, for generosity, is a hero of romance; Porthos has an
excellent disposition, but is easily influenced; Aramis has a
hieroglyphic countenance, always illegible. What will come out of those
three elements when I am no longer present to combine them? The
deliverance of the cardinal, perhaps. Now, the deliverance of the
cardinal would be the ruin of our hopes; and our hopes are thus far the
only recompense we have for labors in comparison with which those of
Hercules were pygmean."
He went to find Aramis.
"You, my dear Chevalier d’Herblay," he said, "are the Fronde incarnate.
Mistrust Athos, therefore, who will not prosecute the affairs of any
one, even his own. Mistrust Porthos, especially, who, to please the
count whom he regards as God on earth, will assist him in contriving
Mazarin’s escape, if Mazarin has the wit to weep or play the chivalric."
Aramis smiled; his smile was at once cunning and resolute.
"Fear nothing," he said; "I have my conditions to impose. My private
ambition tends only to the profit of him who has justice on his side."
"Good!" thought D’Artagnan: "in this direction I am satisfied." He
pressed Aramis’s hand and went in search of Porthos.
"Friend," he said, "you have worked so hard with me toward building up
our fortune, that, at the moment when we are about to reap the fruits of
our labours, it would be a ridiculous piece of silliness in you to allow
yourself to be controlled by Aramis, whose cunning you know--a cunning
which, we may say between ourselves, is not always without egotism; or
by Athos, a noble and disinterested man, but blase, who, desiring
nothing further for himself, doesn’t sympathize with the desires of
others. What should you say if either of these two friends proposed to
you to let Mazarin go?"
"Why, I should say that we had too much trouble in taking him to let him
off so easily."
"Bravo, Porthos! and you would be right, my friend; for in losing him
you would lose your barony, which you have in your grasp, to say nothing
of the fact that, were he once out of this, Mazarin would have you
hanged."
"Do you think so?"
"I am sure of it."
"Then I would kill him rather than let him go."
"And you would act rightly. There is no question, you understand,
provided we secure our own interests, of securing those of the
Frondeurs; who, besides, don’t understand political matters as we old
soldiers do."
"Never fear, dear friend," said Porthos. "I shall see you through the
window as you mount your horse; I shall follow you with my eyes as long
as you are in sight; then I shall place myself at the cardinal’s door--a
door with glass windows. I shall see everything, and at the least
suspicious sign I shall begin to exterminate."
"Bravo!" thought D’Artagnan; "on this side I think the cardinal will be
well guarded." He pressed the hand of the lord of Pierrefonds and went
in search of Athos.
"My dear Athos," he said, "I am going away. I have only one thing to say
to you. You know Anne of Austria; the captivity of Mazarin alone
guarantees my life; if you let him go I am a dead man."
"I needed nothing less than that consideration, my dear D’Artagnan, to
persuade myself to adopt the role of jailer. I give you my word that you
will find the cardinal where you leave him."
"This reassures me more than all the royal signatures," thought
D’Artagnan. "Now that I have the word of Athos I can set out."
D’Artagnan started alone on his journey, without other escort than his
sword, and with a simple passport from Mazarin to secure his admission
to the queen’s presence. Six hours after he left Pierrefonds he was at
Saint Germain.
The disappearance of Mazarin was not as yet generally known. Anne of
Austria was informed of it and concealed her uneasiness from every one.
In the chamber of D’Artagnan and Porthos the two soldiers had been found
bound and gagged. On recovering the use of their limbs and tongues they
could, of course, tell nothing but what they knew--that they had been
seized, stripped and bound. But as to what had been done by Porthos and
D’Artagnan afterward they were as ignorant as all the inhabitants of the
chateau.
Bernouin alone knew a little more than the others. Bernouin, seeing that
his master did not return and hearing the stroke of midnight, had made
an examination of the orangery. The first door, barricaded with
furniture, had aroused in him certain suspicions, but without
communicating his suspicions to any one he had patiently worked his way
into the midst of all that confusion. Then he came to the corridor, all
the doors of which he found open; so, too, was the door of Athos’s
chamber and that of the park. From the latter point it was easy to
follow tracks on the snow. He saw that these tracks tended toward the
wall; on the other side he found similar tracks, then footprints of
horses and then signs of a troop of cavalry which had moved away in the
direction of Enghien. He could no longer cherish any doubt that the
cardinal had been carried off by the three prisoners, since the
prisoners had disappeared at the same time; and he had hastened to Saint
Germain to warn the queen of that disappearance.
Anne had enforced the utmost secrecy and had disclosed the event to no
one except the Prince de Conde, who had sent five or six hundred
horsemen into the environs of Saint Germain with orders to bring in any
suspicious person who was going away from Rueil, in whatsoever direction
it might be.
Now, since D’Artagnan did not constitute a body of horsemen, since he
was alone, since he was not going away from Rueil and was going to Saint
Germain, no one paid any attention to him and his journey was not
obstructed in any way.
On entering the courtyard of the old chateau the first person seen by
our ambassador was Maitre Bernouin in person, who, standing on the
threshold, awaited news of his vanished master.
At the sight of D’Artagnan, who entered the courtyard on horseback,
Bernouin rubbed his eyes and thought he must be mistaken. But D’Artagnan
made a friendly sign to him with his head, dismounted, and throwing his
bridle to a lackey who was passing, he approached the valet-de-chambre
with a smile on his lips.
"Monsieur d’Artagnan!" cried the latter, like a man who has the
nightmare and talks in his sleep, "Monsieur d’Artagnan!"
"Himself, Monsieur Bernouin."
"And why have you come here?"
"To bring news of Monsieur de Mazarin--the freshest news there is."
"What has become of him, then?"
"He is as well as you and I."
"Nothing bad has happened to him, then?"
"Absolutely nothing. He felt the need of making a trip in the Ile de
France, and begged us--the Comte de la Fere and Monsieur du Vallon--to
accompany him. We were too devoted servants to refuse him a request of
that sort. We set out last evening and here we are."
"Here you are."
"His eminence had something to communicate to her majesty, something
secret and private--a mission that could be confided only to a sure
man--and so has sent me to Saint Germain. And therefore, my dear
Monsieur Bernouin, if you wish to do what will be pleasing to your
master, announce to her majesty that I have come, and tell her with what
purpose."
Whether he spoke seriously or in jest, since it was evident that under
existing circumstances D’Artagnan was the only man who could relieve the
queen’s uneasiness, Bernouin went without hesitation to announce to her
this strange embassy; and as he had foreseen, the queen gave orders to
introduce Monsieur d’Artagnan at once.
D’Artagnan approached the sovereign with every mark of profound respect,
and having fallen on his knees presented to her the cardinal’s letter
It was, however, merely a letter of introduction. The queen read it,
recognized the writing, and, since there were no details in it of what
had occurred, asked for particulars. D’Artagnan related everything with
that simple and ingenuous air which he knew how to assume on occasions.
The queen, as he went on, looked at him with increasing astonishment.
She could not comprehend how a man could conceive such an enterprise and
still less how he could have the audacity to disclose it to her whose
interest and almost duty it was to punish him.
"How, sir!" she cried, as D’Artagnan finished, "you dare to tell me the
details of your crime--to give me an account of your treason!"
"Pardon, madame, but I think that either I have expressed myself badly
or your majesty has imperfectly understood me. There is here no question
of crime or treason. Monsieur de Mazarin held us in prison, Monsieur du
Vallon and myself, because we could not believe that he had sent us to
England to quietly look on while they cut off the head of Charles I.,
brother-in-law of the late king, your husband, the consort of Madame
Henrietta, your sister and your guest, and because we did all that we
could do to save the life of the royal martyr. We were then convinced,
my friend and I, that there was some error of which we were the victims,
and that an explanation was called for between his eminence and
ourselves. Now, that an explanation may bear fruit, it is necessary that
it should be quietly conducted, far from noise and interruption. We have
therefore taken away monsieur le cardinal to my friend’s chateau and
there we have come to an understanding. Well, madame, it proved to be as
we had supposed; there was a mistake. Monsieur de Mazarin had thought
that we had rendered service to General Cromwell, instead of King
Charles, which would have been a disgrace, rebounding from us to him,
and from him to your majesty--a dishonor which would have tainted the
royalty of your illustrious son. We were able to prove the contrary, and
that proof we are ready to give to your majesty, calling in support of
it the august widow weeping in the Louvre, where your royal munificence
has provided for her a home. That proof satisfied him so completely
that, as a sign of satisfaction, he has sent me, as your majesty may
see, to consider with you what reparation should be made to gentlemen
unjustly treated and wrongfully persecuted."
"I listen to you, and I wonder at you, sir," said the queen. "In fact, I
have rarely seen such excess of impudence."
"Your majesty, on your side," said D’Artagnan, "is as much mistaken as
to our intentions as the Cardinal Mazarin has always been."
"You are in error, sir," answered the queen. "I am so little mistaken
that in ten minutes you shall be arrested, and in an hour I shall set
off at the head of my army to release my minister."
"I am sure your majesty will not commit such an act of imprudence,
first, because it would be useless and would produce the most disastrous
results. Before he could be possibly set free the cardinal would be
dead; and indeed, so convinced is he of this, that he entreated me,
should I find your majesty disposed to act in this way, to do all I
could to induce you to change your resolution."
"Well, then, I will content myself with arresting you!"
"Madame, the possibility of my arrest has been foreseen, and should I
not have returned by to-morrow, at a certain hour the next day the
cardinal will be brought to Paris and delivered to the parliament."
"It is evident, sir, that your position has kept you out of relation to
men and affairs; otherwise you would know that since we left Paris
monsieur le cardinal has returned thither five or six times; that he has
there met De Beaufort, De Bouillon, the coadjutor and D’Elbeuf and that
not one of them had any desire to arrest him."
"Your pardon, madame, I know all that. And therefore my friends will
conduct monsieur le cardinal neither to De Beaufort, nor to De Bouillon,
nor to the coadjutor, nor to D’Elbeuf. These gentlemen wage war on
private account, and in buying them up, by granting them what they
wished, monsieur le cardinal has made a good bargain. He will be
delivered to the parliament, members of which can, of course, be bought,
but even Monsieur de Mazarin is not rich enough to buy the whole body."
"I think," returned Anne of Austria, fixing upon him a glance, which in
any woman’s face would have expressed disdain, but in a queen’s, spread terror to those she looked upon, "nay, I perceive you dare to threaten the mother of your sovereign." |
|
댓글 없음:
댓글 쓰기