Part 41

Porthos and Aramis looked at each other; they were beginning to understand.

"But," said d'Artagnan, leaning toward Athos's ear, "you'll get us all killed without mercy."

"We'll be much more killed if we don't go," replied Athos.

"Ah! upon my word, gentlemen!" said Porthos, leaning back in his chair and twisting his mustache, "this is a fine wager, I hope."

"And so I accept it," said M. de Busigny; "now we must fix the stakes."

"But you are four, gentlemen," said Athos, "we are four; a dinner at discretion for eight, will that suit you?"

"Admirably," replied M. de Busigny.

"Perfectly," said the dragoon.

"That suits me," said the Swiss.

The fourth auditor, who throughout this conversation had played a mute role, made a sign with his head to indicate that he acquiesced to the proposal.

"These gentlemen's breakfast is ready," said the host.

"Well, bring it," said Athos.

The host obeyed. Athos called Grimaud, showed him a large basket that lay in a corner, and made the gesture of wrapping the meats brought in the napkins.

Grimaud instantly understood that it was about a breakfast on the grass, took the basket, packed the meats, added the bottles, and took the basket on his arm.

"But where are you going to eat my breakfast?" said the host.

"What does it matter to you," said Athos, "provided you are paid for it?"

And he majestically threw two pistoles on the table.

"Shall I give you change, my officer?" said the host.

"No; just add two bottles of champagne, and the difference will be for the napkins."

The host did not make as good a deal as he had first thought, but he recouped himself by slipping the four diners two bottles of Anjou wine instead of two bottles of champagne.

"Monsieur de Busigny," said Athos, "will you be so kind as to set your watch by mine, or allow me to set mine by yours?"

"Admirably, monsieur!" said the light horseman, pulling from his pocket a very fine watch surrounded by diamonds; "half past seven," he said.

"Thirty-five minutes past seven," said Athos; "we shall know that I am five minutes ahead of you, monsieur."

And, bowing to the astonished bystanders, the four young men took the path to the bastion of Saint-Gervais, followed by Grimaud, who carried the basket, ignorant of where he was going, but, in the passive obedience he had acquired with Athos, did not even think to ask.

As long as they were within the camp enclosure, the four friends exchanged not a word; besides, they were followed by the curious, who, knowing the wager, wanted to see how they would get out of it.

But once they had crossed the line of circumvallation and found themselves in the open air, d'Artagnan, who was completely ignorant of what it was about, thought it was time to ask for an explanation.

"And now, my dear Athos," he said, "do me the favor of telling me where we are going?"

"You see well," said Athos, "we are going to the bastion."

"But what are we going to do there?"

"You know well, we are going to breakfast there."

"But why did we not breakfast at the Parpaillot?"

"Because we have very important things to say to each other, and it was impossible to talk for five minutes in that inn with all those importunate people who come and go, who bow, who accost; here, at least," continued Athos, pointing to the bastion, "no one will come to disturb us."

"It seems to me," said d'Artagnan, with that prudence which was so well and so naturally combined in him with excessive bravery, "it seems to me that we could have found some secluded place in the dunes, by the seaside."

"Where we would have been seen conferring together all four, so that within a quarter of an hour the cardinal would have been informed by his spies that we were holding council."

"Yes," said Aramis, "Athos is right: *Animadvertuntur in desertis.*"

"A desert would not have been bad," said Porthos, "but it was a matter of finding one."

"There is no desert where a bird cannot pass overhead, where a fish cannot leap out of the water, where a rabbit cannot start from its burrow, and I think bird, fish, rabbit—everything has become a spy for the cardinal. So it is better to pursue our enterprise, from which, moreover, we cannot now retreat without dishonor; we have made a wager, a wager that could not be foreseen, and I defy anyone to guess its true cause: we are going, to win it, to hold out for an hour in the bastion. Either we will be attacked, or we will not. If we are not, we will have plenty of time to talk and no one will hear us, for I answer that the walls of this bastion have no ears; if we are, we will talk of our affairs just the same, and moreover, while defending ourselves, we cover ourselves with glory. You see that everything is gain."

"Yes," said d'Artagnan, "but we will undoubtedly catch a bullet."

"Eh! my dear," said Athos, "you know well that the bullets most to be feared are not those of the enemy."

"But it seems to me that for such an expedition, we should at least have brought our muskets."

"You are a simpleton, friend Porthos; why burden ourselves with an unnecessary load?"

"I do not think that, in the face of the enemy, a good musket of caliber, twelve cartridges, and a powder flask is unnecessary."

"Oh! well," said Athos, "did you not hear what d'Artagnan said?"

"What did d'Artagnan say?" asked Porthos.

"D'Artagnan said that in last night's attack there were eight or ten French killed and as many Rochelais."

"And then?"

"They have not had time to strip them, have they? since they had other more pressing things to do at the moment."

"Well?"

"Well, we are going to find their muskets, their powder flasks, and their cartridges, and instead of four musketeons and twelve bullets, we will have about fifteen guns and a hundred shots to fire."

"O Athos!" said Aramis, "you are truly a great man!"

Porthos inclined his head as a sign of approval.

D'Artagnan alone did not appear convinced.

No doubt Grimaud shared the young man's doubts; for, seeing that they continued to march toward the bastion, a thing he had doubted until then, he tugged his master by the flap of his coat.

"Where are we going?" he asked by gesture.

Athos showed him the bastion.

"But," said the silent Grimaud, always in the same dialect, "we will leave our skin there."

Athos raised his eyes and finger toward heaven.

Grimaud put his basket on the ground and sat down, shaking his head.

Athos took a pistol from his belt, looked to see if it was well primed, cocked it, and brought the barrel to Grimaud's ear.

Grimaud was back on his feet as if by a spring.

Athos then motioned him to take the basket and walk ahead.

Grimaud obeyed.

All that the poor fellow had gained from this momentary pantomime was that he had passed from the rearguard to the vanguard.

Arrived at the bastion, the four friends turned around.

More than three hundred soldiers of all arms were assembled at the camp gate, and in a separate group they could distinguish M. de Busigny, the dragoon, the Swiss, and the fourth bettor.

Athos took off his hat, put it on the end of his sword, and waved it in the air.

All the spectators returned his salute, accompanying this politeness with a great hurrah that reached them.

After which, they all four disappeared into the bastion, where Grimaud had already preceded them.

CHAPTER XLVII. THE COUNCIL OF THE MUSKETEERS

As Athos had foreseen, the bastion was only occupied by about a dozen dead, both French and Rochelais.

"Gentlemen," said Athos, who had taken command of the expedition, "while Grimaud sets the table, let us begin by collecting the guns and cartridges; besides, we can talk while doing this task. These gentlemen," he added, pointing to the dead, "are not listening to us."

"But we could always throw them into the ditch," said Porthos, "after making sure they have nothing in their pockets, though."

"Yes," said Aramis, "that's Grimaud's job."

"Ah! well then," said d'Artagnan, "let Grimaud search them and throw them over the walls."

"Let us be careful not to do that," said Athos, "they may be useful to us."

"These dead may be useful to us?" said Porthos. "Come now, you are going mad, dear friend."

"Judge not rashly," say the gospel and M. the cardinal, replied Athos; "how many guns, gentlemen?"

"Twelve," answered Aramis.

"How many shots to fire?"

"About a hundred."

"That is as many as we need; let us load the arms."

The four musketeers set to work. As they finished loading the last gun, Grimaud signaled that breakfast was served.

Athos replied, still by gesture, that it was well, and indicated to Grimaud a kind of pepperbox where the latter understood he was to stand sentinel. Only, to sweeten the boredom of the guard, Athos allowed him to take a loaf of bread, two cutlets, and a bottle of wine.

"And now, to table," said Athos.

The four friends sat down on the ground, cross-legged, like Turks or like tailors.

"Ah! now," said d'Artagnan, "since you no longer fear being overheard, I hope you will share your secret with us, Athos."

"I hope to provide you with both pleasure and glory, gentlemen," said Athos. "I have given you a charming walk; here is a most succulent breakfast; and five hundred people over there, as you can see through the loopholes, who take us for madmen or heroes—two classes of fools that rather resemble each other."

"But the secret?" asked d'Artagnan.

"The secret," said Athos, "is that I saw Milady last evening."

D'Artagnan was raising his glass to his lips; but at that name of Milady, his hand trembled so violently that he put it down to avoid spilling its contents.

"You saw your fem—"

"Hush!" interrupted Athos; "you forget, my dear, that these gentlemen are not as initiated as you into the secret of my domestic affairs; I saw Milady."

"And where was that?" asked d'Artagnan.

"About two leagues from here, at the inn of the Colombier-Rouge."

"In that case I am lost," said d'Artagnan.

"No, not quite yet," replied Athos; "for by now she must have left the coasts of France."

D'Artagnan breathed again.

"But after all," asked Porthos, "what then is this Milady?"

"A charming woman," said Athos, sipping a glass of sparkling wine. "Scoundrel of an innkeeper!" he cried, "who gives us Anjou wine for champagne, and thinks we will be taken in! Yes," he continued, "a charming woman who has had kindnesses for our friend d'Artagnan, who has done her some dirty trick for which she tried to revenge herself a month ago by trying to have him killed with musket shots, eight days ago by attempting to poison him, and yesterday by asking the cardinal for his head."

"What! asking the cardinal for my head?" cried d'Artagnan, pale with terror.

"That," said Porthos, "is as true as the gospel; I heard it with my own two ears."

"I also," said Aramis.

"Then," said d'Artagnan, letting his arm fall with discouragement, "it is useless to struggle any longer; I might as well blow my brains out and have done with it!"

"That is the last foolish thing to do," said Athos, "since it is the only one for which there is no remedy."

"But I will never escape from such enemies," said d'Artagnan. "First my unknown from Meung; then de Wardes, to whom I gave three sword thrusts; then Milady, whose secret I surprised; then the cardinal, whose vengeance I thwarted."

"Well," said Athos, "that only makes four, and we are four, one against one. Pardieu! if we are to believe the signs Grimaud is making, we are about to have dealings with a much greater number of people. What is it, Grimaud? Considering the gravity of the circumstance, I permit you to speak, my friend, but be brief, I pray you. What do you see?"

"A troop."

"Of how many persons?"

"Twenty men."

"What men?"

"Sixteen pioneers, four soldiers."

"How many paces off are they?"

"Five hundred paces."

"Good, we still have time to finish this fowl and drink a glass of wine to your health, d'Artagnan!"

"To your health!" repeated Porthos and Aramis.

"Well then, to my health! though I do not believe your good wishes will do me much good."

"Bah!" said Athos, "God is great, as the followers of Mahomet say, and the future is in his hands."

Then, swallowing the contents of his glass, which he set down beside him, Athos rose nonchalantly, took the first gun that came to hand, and approached a loophole.

Porthos, Aramis, and d'Artagnan did the same. As for Grimaud, he received orders to place himself behind the four friends to reload the arms.

In a moment the troop appeared; it followed a kind of trench communication that established a connection between the bastion and the city.

"Pardieu!" said Athos, "it's hardly worth disturbing ourselves for a score of rascals armed with picks, mattocks, and shovels! Grimaud only needed to make a sign for them to go away, and I am convinced they would have left us in peace."

"I doubt it," observed d'Artagnan, "for they are advancing very resolutely this way. Besides, there are with the workers four soldiers and a brigadier armed with muskets."

"That is because they have not seen us," replied Athos.

"My faith!" said Aramis, "I confess I have a repugnance to firing on these poor bourgeois devils."

"Bad priest," replied Porthos, "who pities heretics!"

"Truly," said Athos, "Aramis is right, I am going to warn them."

"What the devil are you doing?" cried d'Artagnan, "you will get yourself shot, my dear."

But Athos paid no attention to the advice, and, mounting the breach, his gun in one hand and his hat in the other:

"Gentlemen," he said, addressing the soldiers and workers, who, astonished at his appearance, stopped about fifty paces from the bastion, and saluting them courteously, "gentlemen, my friends and I are having breakfast in this bastion. Now, you know that nothing is more disagreeable than being disturbed while breakfasting; we therefore pray you, if you absolutely have business here, to wait until we have finished our meal, or to come back later, unless it takes you into the salutary desire to leave the party of rebellion and come drink with us to the health of the King of France."

"Take care, Athos!" cried d'Artagnan; "do you not see they are taking aim at you?"

"Yes, yes," said Athos, "but they are bourgeois who shoot very badly, and are not likely to hit me."

Indeed, at the same instant four musket shots rang out, and the balls flattened around Athos, but not one touched him.

Four musket shots answered them almost simultaneously, but they were better aimed than those of the aggressors; three soldiers fell dead, and one of the workers was wounded.

"Grimaud, another musket!" said Athos, still on the breach.

Grimaud obeyed at once. Meanwhile, the three friends had loaded their arms; a second volley followed the first: the brigadier and two pioneers fell dead; the rest of the troop took flight.

"Come, gentlemen, a sortie," said Athos.

And the four friends, rushing out of the fort, reached the battlefield, picked up the four muskets of the soldiers and the brigadier's half-pike; and, convinced that the fugitives would not stop until they reached the city, they returned to the bastion, bringing back the trophies of their victory.

"Reload the arms, Grimaud," said Athos, "and we, gentlemen, let us resume our breakfast and continue our conversation. Where were we?"

"I remember," said d'Artagnan; "you were saying that after asking the cardinal for my head, Milady had left the coasts of France."

"That is true."

"And where is she going?" added d'Artagnan, who was very concerned about the itinerary Milady would follow.

"She is going to England," replied Athos.

"And for what purpose?"

"For the purpose of assassinating or causing the assassination of Buckingham."

D'Artagnan uttered an exclamation of surprise and indignation.

"But that is infamous!" he cried.

"Oh! as for that," said Athos, "I beg you to believe that I care very little about it. Now that you have finished, Grimaud," continued Athos, "take our brigadier's half-pike, tie a napkin to it, and plant it at the top of our bastion, so that these rebel Rochelais may see that they have to do with brave and loyal soldiers of the king."

Grimaud obeyed without answering. A moment later the white flag floated above the heads of the four friends; a thunder of applause greeted its appearance; half the camp was at the barriers.

"What!" resumed d'Artagnan, "you care very little whether she kills or causes Buckingham to be killed? But the duke is our friend."

"The duke is an Englishman, the duke fights against us; let her do with the duke what she will, I care as much as for an empty bottle."

And Athos sent a bottle he was holding fifteen paces away, from which he had just drained the last drop into his glass.

"One moment," said d'Artagnan, "I do not abandon Buckingham like that; he gave us very fine horses."

"And especially very fine saddles," added Porthos, who at that very moment wore on his cloak the lace of his own.

"Then," observed Aramis, "God wills the conversion, not the death, of the sinner."

"Amen," said Athos, "and we will come back to that later, if such is your pleasure; but what for the moment preoccupied me most, and I am sure you will understand me, d'Artagnan, was to recover from that woman a kind of blank order she had extorted from the cardinal, and by means of which she could with impunity get rid of you and perhaps of us."

"But then this creature is a demon!" said Porthos, holding out his plate to Aramis, who was carving a fowl.

"And this blank order," said d'Artagnan, "this blank order—is it still in her hands?"

"No, it has passed into mine; I will not say it was without trouble, for example, for I would lie."

"My dear Athos," said d'Artagnan, "I no longer count the times I owe you my life."

"So it was to go to her that you left us?" asked Aramis.

"Exactly. And you have that letter from the cardinal?" said d'Artagnan.

"Here it is," said Athos.

And he drew the precious paper from the pocket of his doublet.

D'Artagnan unfolded it with a hand whose trembling he did not even try to hide and read:

"It is by my order and for the good of the State that the bearer of the present has done what he has done.

"5 December 1627 "Richelieu"

"Indeed," said Aramis, "it is an absolution in all due form."

"This paper must be torn up," cried d'Artagnan, who seemed to read his death sentence in it.

"Quite the contrary," said Athos, "it must be preserved carefully, and I would not give it up even if covered with gold pieces."

"And what will she do now?" asked the young man.

"But," said Athos carelessly, "she will probably write to the cardinal that a cursed musketeer named Athos has torn her safe-conduct from her; she will give him, in the same letter, the advice to get rid, at the same time as himself, of his two friends, Porthos and Aramis; the cardinal will remember that these are the same men he always meets in his path; then, one fine morning, he will have d'Artagnan arrested, and, so that he may not be bored alone, he will send us to keep him company in the Bastille."

"Ah come now," said Porthos, "it seems to me you are making sad jokes, my dear."

"I am not joking," replied Athos.

"Do you know," said Porthos, "that wringing the neck of that damned Milady would be a lesser sin than wringing the necks of those poor Huguenot devils, who have never committed any other crime than singing in French psalms we sing in Latin?"

"What says the abbé?" asked Athos calmly.

"I say I am of Porthos's opinion," replied Aramis.

"And I too!" said d'Artagnan.

"Happily she is far away," observed Porthos; "for I confess she would greatly trouble me here."

"She troubles me in England as much as in France," said Athos.

"She troubles me everywhere," continued d'Artagnan.

"But since you held her," said Porthos, "why did you not drown her, strangle her, hang her? the dead never return."

"You think so, Porthos?" replied the musketeer with a somber smile that d'Artagnan alone understood.

"I have an idea," said d'Artagnan.

"Let's hear it," said the musketeers.

"To arms!" cried Grimaud.

The young men rose quickly and ran to the guns.

This time a small troop advanced, composed of twenty or twenty-five men; but they were no longer workers, they were soldiers of the garrison.

"Should we return to camp?" said Porthos; "it seems to me the odds are not equal."

"Impossible for three reasons," replied Athos: "first, because we have not finished breakfast; second, because we still have important things to say; third, because the hour is still ten minutes short of being up."

"Come," said Aramis, "we must however settle a plan of battle."

"It is very simple," replied Athos: "as soon as the enemy is within musket range, we fire; if he continues to advance, we fire again, we fire as long as we have loaded guns; if what remains of the troop still wants to assault, we let the besiegers descend into the ditch, and then we push down on their heads that section of wall which only holds by a miracle of balance."

"Bravo!" cried Porthos; "decidedly, Athos, you were born to be a general, and the cardinal, who thinks himself a great military man, is very little compared to you."

"Gentlemen," said Athos, "no duplication, I pray you; each aim well at his man."

"I have mine," said d'Artagnan.

"And I mine," said Porthos.

"And I likewise," said Aramis.

"Then fire!" said Athos.

The four musket shots made but one report, and four men fell.

Immediately the drum beat, and the little troop advanced at the charge.

Then the musket shots succeeded each other irregularly, but always sent with the same accuracy. However, as if they had known the numerical weakness of the friends, the Rochelais continued to advance at a run.

On three more musket shots, two men fell; but still the march of those who remained standing did not slacken.

Arrived at the foot of the bastion, the enemies were still twelve or fifteen; a last volley greeted them, but did not stop them: they jumped into the ditch and prepared to scale the breach.

"Come, my friends," said Athos, "let us finish it at one blow: to the wall! to the wall!"

“Stories of the world, in your language.”