Part 7

**Chapter 7: Part 7**

That cry was ordinarily heard; for people knew the musketeers were enemies of His Eminence, and they were loved for the hatred they bore the cardinal. Thus the guards of other companies than those belonging to the Red Duke, as Aramis had called him, generally took sides in such quarrels for the king's musketeers. Of three guards from M. des Essarts' company who were passing, two therefore came to the aid of the four companions, while the other ran to M. de Tréville's hotel, crying: "To us, musketeers, to us!" As usual, M. de Tréville's hotel was full of soldiers of that corps, who rushed to the aid of their comrades; the fray became general, but the strength was with the musketeers: the cardinal's guards and M. de La Trémouille's men retreated into the hotel, whose doors they closed in time to prevent their enemies from bursting in with them. As for the wounded man, he had been carried there at once and, as we have said, in very bad condition.

The agitation was at its height among the musketeers and their allies, and they were already deliberating whether, to punish the insolence of M. de La Trémouille's servants in making a sortie against the king's musketeers, they should not set fire to his hotel. The proposal had been made and received with enthusiasm, when fortunately eleven o'clock struck; d'Artagnan and his companions remembered their audience, and as they would have regretted that such a fine blow were struck without them, they managed to calm the hotheads. They contented themselves, therefore, with throwing a few paving stones at the doors, but the doors held firm; then they grew weary; moreover, those who were to be regarded as the leaders of the enterprise had left the group a moment before and were making their way to M. de Tréville's hotel, who was waiting for them, already aware of this affray.

"Quick, to the Louvre," said he, "to the Louvre without losing an instant, and let us try to see the king before he is warned by the cardinal; we will tell him the matter as a consequence of yesterday's affair, and the two will pass together."

M. de Tréville, accompanied by the four young men, therefore proceeded towards the Louvre; but, to the great astonishment of the captain of the musketeers, he was informed that the king had gone to hunt the stag in the forest of Saint-Germain. M. de Tréville had this news repeated twice, and each time his companions saw his face darken.

"Did His Majesty," he asked, "have the intention of making this hunt yesterday?"

"No, Your Excellency," answered the valet de chambre, "it was the grand huntsman who came this morning to tell him that a stag had been turned for him during the night. He first replied that he would not go, then he could not resist the pleasure this hunt promised him, and after dinner he left."

"And has the king seen the cardinal?" asked M. de Tréville.

"In all probability," answered the valet de chambre, "for I saw His Eminence's horses at his carriage this morning, I asked where he was going, and they told me: 'To Saint-Germain.'"

"We are anticipated," said M. de Tréville, "gentlemen, I will see the king this evening; but as for you, I do not advise you to risk it."

The advice was too reasonable, and especially came from a man who knew the king too well, for the four young men to try to oppose it. M. de Tréville therefore invited them each to return home and await news from him.

Upon entering his hotel, M. de Tréville thought that he must take the initiative by lodging the first complaint. He sent one of his servants to M. de La Trémouille with a letter in which he begged him to expel the cardinal's guard from his house, and to reprimand his people for the audacity they had shown in making their sortie against the musketeers. But M. de La Trémouille, already forewarned by his squire, of whom, as we know, Bernajoux was a relative, had him answer that neither M. de Tréville nor his musketeers had cause to complain, but rather the contrary, he had cause, since the musketeers had attacked his people and wanted to burn his hotel. Now, as the debate between these two lords might have lasted a long time, each naturally persisting in his opinion, M. de Tréville devised an expedient to end everything: that was to go himself to see M. de La Trémouille.

He therefore went at once to his hotel and had himself announced.

The two lords greeted each other politely, for if there was no friendship between them, there was at least esteem. Both were men of heart and honor; and as M. de La Trémouille, a Protestant, and seeing the king rarely, belonged to no party, he generally brought no prejudice into his social relations. This time, nevertheless, his welcome, though polite, was colder than usual.

"Monsieur," said M. de Tréville, "we each think we have cause to complain of the other, and I have come myself so that we can clear this matter up together."

"Willingly," answered M. de La Trémouille; "but I warn you that I am well informed, and all the fault lies with your musketeers."

"You are too just and too reasonable a man, monsieur," said M. de Tréville, "not to accept the proposition I am going to make."

"State it, monsieur, I am listening."

"How is M. Bernajoux, your squire's relative?"

"Why, monsieur, very ill. Besides the sword thrust he received in the arm, which is not otherwise dangerous, he also got another which pierced his lung, so that the doctors say poor things of him."

"But has the wounded man retained his consciousness?"

"Perfectly."

"Does he speak?"

"With difficulty, but he speaks."

"Well, monsieur! let us go to him; let us adjure him, in the name of the God before whom he is perhaps about to be called, to tell the truth. I will take him as judge in his own cause, monsieur, and what he says I will believe."

M. de La Trémouille reflected for a moment, then, as it was difficult to make a more reasonable proposition, he accepted.

Both went down to the room where the wounded man lay. He, seeing these two noble lords entering to visit him, tried to raise himself on his bed, but he was too weak, and, exhausted by the effort he had made, he fell back almost unconscious.

M. de La Trémouille approached him and made him inhale salts which revived him. Then M. de Tréville, not wishing to be accused of influencing the patient, invited M. de La Trémouille to question him himself.

What M. de Tréville had foreseen happened. Placed between life and death as Bernajoux was, he did not even think of concealing the truth for an instant, and he told the two lords the events exactly as they had happened.

That was all M. de Tréville wanted; he wished Bernajoux a speedy recovery, took leave of M. de La Trémouille, returned to his hotel, and immediately sent word to the four friends that he expected them for dinner.

M. de Tréville entertained very good company, all anti-cardinalist, moreover. It can be understood, therefore, that the conversation during dinner revolved around the two defeats His Eminence's guards had just suffered. Now, as d'Artagnan had been the hero of these two days, all the congratulations fell upon him, which Athos, Porthos, and Aramis yielded to him not only as good comrades, but as men who had had their turn often enough to leave him his.

About six o'clock, M. de Tréville announced that he was obliged to go to the Louvre; but as the hour of the audience granted by His Majesty was past, instead of claiming entry by the little staircase, he placed himself with the four young men in the antechamber. The king had not yet returned from the hunt. Our young men had been waiting barely half an hour, mingled with the crowd of courtiers, when all the doors opened and His Majesty was announced.

At this announcement, d'Artagnan felt a thrill to the marrow of his bones. The moment that was to follow would, in all probability, decide the rest of his life. So his eyes fixed themselves with anguish on the door through which the king was to enter.

Louis XIII appeared, walking first; he was in hunting costume, still all dusty, with large boots and holding a whip in his hand. At first glance, d'Artagnan judged that the king's mood was stormy.

This disposition, however visible it was in His Majesty, did not prevent the courtiers from lining up in his path: in royal antechambers, it is better to be seen by an angry eye than not to be seen at all. The three musketeers therefore did not hesitate, and stepped forward, while d'Artagnan, on the contrary, remained hidden behind them; but although the king personally knew Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, he passed before them without looking at them, without speaking to them, and as if he had never seen them. As for M. de Tréville, when the king's eyes rested on him for an instant, he sustained that look with such firmness that it was the king who averted his gaze; after which, grumbling, His Majesty retired into his apartment.

"Things are going badly," said Athos, smiling, "and we shall not be made knights of the order this time."

"Wait here ten minutes," said M. de Tréville; "and if at the end of ten minutes you do not see me come out, return to my hotel: for it will be useless for you to wait any longer."

The four young men waited ten minutes, a quarter of an hour, twenty minutes; and seeing that M. de Tréville did not reappear, they went out, very anxious about what was going to happen.

M. de Tréville had entered the king's cabinet boldly, and had found His Majesty in a very bad humor, seated in an armchair and beating his boots with the handle of his whip, which did not prevent him from asking him, with the greatest phlegm, news of his health.

"Bad, monsieur, bad," answered the king, "I am bored."

That was indeed the worst illness of Louis XIII, who often took one of his courtiers, drew him to a window and said: "Monsieur so-and-so, let us be bored together."

"What! Your Majesty is bored!" said M. de Tréville. "Did you not take the pleasure of hunting today?"

"Fine pleasure, monsieur! Everything degenerates, upon my soul, and I do not know whether it is the game that has no scent or the dogs that have no noses. We start a ten-point stag, we chase him for six hours, and when he is ready to make a stand, when Saint-Simon already puts the horn to his mouth to sound the kill, crack! the whole pack takes the wrong scent and runs off after a young buck. You will see that I shall be forced to give up hunting with hounds as I gave up hawking. Ah! I am a very unhappy king, Monsieur de Tréville! I had only one gyrfalcon left, and he died the day before yesterday."

"Indeed, Sire, I understand your despair, and the misfortune is great; but it seems to me you still have a good number of falcons, sparrowhawks, and tiercels."

"And not a man to train them; the falconers are leaving; there is no one left but me who knows the art of venery. After me everything will be over, and people will hunt with traps, snares, and pitfalls. If only I still had time to train pupils! but yes, M. the cardinal is there, who leaves me not a moment's rest, who talks to me of Spain, who talks to me of Austria, who talks to me of England! Ah! speaking of M. the cardinal, Monsieur de Tréville, I am displeased with you."

M. de Tréville was expecting the king at this fall. He knew the king of long standing; he had understood that all his complaints were merely a preface, a kind of self-excitation to encourage himself, and that it was to this point he had finally wanted to come.

"And in what have I been unfortunate enough to displease Your Majesty?" asked M. de Tréville, feigning the deepest astonishment.

"Is this how you fulfill your office, monsieur?" continued the king, without directly answering M. de Tréville's question; "is it for this that I appointed you captain of my musketeers, that they should assassinate a man, stir up a whole quarter, and want to burn Paris without your saying a word? But, after all," continued the king, "no doubt I am hasty in accusing you; no doubt the disturbers are in prison and you have come to tell me that justice has been done."

"Sire," answered M. de Tréville calmly, "I come, on the contrary, to ask it of you."

"And against whom?" cried the king.

"Against the slanderers," said M. de Tréville.

"Ah! this is something new," resumed the king. "Are you not going to say that your three damned musketeers, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, and your young cadet from Béarn, did not fling themselves like furies upon poor Bernajoux, and did not maltreat him in such a way that he is likely to be breathing his last at this hour! Are you not going to say that afterwards they did not lay siege to the Duke of La Trémouille's hotel, and that they did not want to burn it! which might not have been a very great misfortune in time of war, seeing that it is a nest of Huguenots, but which, in time of peace, is a sorry example. Say, are you not going to deny all this?"

"And who has told you this fine story, Sire?" asked M. de Tréville calmly.

"Who has told me this fine story, monsieur! and who would you have it be, if not he who watches while I sleep, who works while I amuse myself, who directs everything inside and outside the kingdom, in France as in Europe?"

"His Majesty means to speak of God, no doubt," said M. de Tréville, "for I know only God who is so far above His Majesty."

"No, monsieur; I mean to speak of the support of the State, my only servant, my only friend, M. the cardinal."

"His Eminence is not His Holiness, Sire."

"What do you mean by that, monsieur?"

"That only the Pope is infallible, and that this infallibility does not extend to cardinals."

"You mean to say that he deceives me, you mean to say that he betrays me. You accuse him, then. Come now, say, confess frankly that you accuse him."

"No, Sire; but I say that he deceives himself; I say that he has been misinformed; I say that he has been hasty in accusing Your Majesty's musketeers, towards whom he is unjust, and that he has not drawn his information from the right sources."

"The accusation comes from M. de La Trémouille, from the duke himself. What will you answer to that?"

"I could answer, Sire, that he is too interested in the question to be a very impartial witness; but far from that, Sire, I know the duke for a loyal gentleman, and I will refer to him—but on one condition, Sire."

"What is that?"

"That Your Majesty will have him come, will question him, but yourself, face to face, without witnesses, and that I will see Your Majesty again as soon as you have received the duke."

"Indeed!" said the king, "and you will abide by what M. de La Trémouille says?"

"Yes, Sire."

"You will accept his judgment?"

"Without doubt."

"And you will submit to the reparation he shall require?"

"Perfectly."

"La Chesnaye!" said the king. "La Chesnaye!"

The trusted valet de chambre of Louis XIII, who always stood at the door, entered.

"La Chesnaye," said the king, "let someone go at once and fetch M. de La Trémouille for me; I wish to speak to him this evening."

"Does Your Majesty give me your word that you will see no one between M. de La Trémouille and myself?"

"No one, on the word of a gentleman."

"Until tomorrow, Sire, then."

"Until tomorrow, monsieur."

"At what hour, if it please Your Majesty?"

"At whatever hour you wish."

"But, coming too early, I fear I might awaken Your Majesty."

"Awaken me? Do I sleep? I no longer sleep, monsieur; I sometimes dream, that is all. Come, therefore, as early in the morning as you wish, at seven o'clock; but beware, if your musketeers are guilty!"

"If my musketeers are guilty, Sire, the guilty shall be placed in Your Majesty's hands, who will deal with them according to your pleasure. Does Your Majesty require anything more? Speak, I am ready to obey you."

"No, monsieur, no, and it is not without reason that I have been called Louis the Just. Until tomorrow, then, monsieur, until tomorrow."

"God keep Your Majesty until then!"

Little as the king slept, M. de Tréville slept even worse; he had sent word that very evening to his three musketeers and their companion to be at his house at half-past six in the morning. He took them with him without affirming anything to them, without promising them anything, and not hiding from them that their favor and even his own hung on a throw of the dice.

Arrived at the foot of the little staircase, he made them wait. If the king were still angry with them, they would go away unseen; if the king consented to receive them, they would only have to send for them.

When he reached the king's private antechamber, M. de Tréville found La Chesnaye, who told him that the Duke of La Trémouille had not been found at his hotel the previous evening, that he had returned too late to present himself at the Louvre, that he had only just arrived, and that he was at that moment with the king.

This circumstance pleased M. de Tréville greatly, who was thus certain that no foreign suggestion could slip between the deposition of M. de La Trémouille and himself.

In fact, scarcely ten minutes had elapsed, when the door of the cabinet opened and M. de Tréville saw the Duke of La Trémouille come out, who came to him and said:

"Monsieur de Tréville, His Majesty has just sent for me to know how things happened yesterday morning at my hotel. I have told him the truth, that is to say, that the fault was with my people, and that I was ready to make you my apologies. Since I meet you, be so kind as to receive them, and always consider me one of your friends."

"Monsieur the Duke," said M. de Tréville, "I was so full of confidence in your loyalty that I wanted no other defender before His Majesty than yourself. I see that I was not mistaken, and I thank you that there is still in France a man of whom one can say without mistake what I said of you."

"That is well, that is well!" said the king, who had listened to these compliments between the two doors; "only, tell him, Tréville, since he claims to be one of your friends, that I too would like to be one of his, but that he neglects me; that it is three years since I have seen him, and I only see him when I send for him. Tell him all that from me, for these are things a king cannot say himself."

"Thanks, Sire, thanks," said the duke; "but let Your Majesty believe that it is not those—I do not say this for M. de Tréville—it is not those whom you see at all hours of the day who are most devoted to you."

"Ah! you heard what I said; so much the better, Duke, so much the better," said the king, advancing to the door. "Ah! it is you, Tréville! Where are your musketeers? I told you the day before yesterday to bring them to me, why did you not do so?"

"They are downstairs, Sire, and with your permission La Chesnaye will tell them to come up."

"Yes, yes, let them come at once; it is going to be eight o'clock, and at nine I expect a visit. Go, Monsieur the Duke, and come back especially. Enter, Tréville."

The duke bowed and went out. As he opened the door, the three musketeers and d'Artagnan, conducted by La Chesnaye, appeared at the top of the staircase.

"Come, my braves," said the king, "come; I have to scold you."

The musketeers approached, bowing; d'Artagnan followed behind.

"The devil! continued the king; "four of you, seven of His Eminence's guards put out of combat in two days! That is too many, gentlemen, that is too many. At that rate, His Eminence would be forced to recruit his company within three weeks, and I to enforce the edicts in all their rigor. One by chance, I do not say; but seven in two days, I repeat, that is too many, that is far too many."

"Therefore, Sire, Your Majesty sees that they come all contrite and repentant to make their excuses to you."

"All contrite and repentant! H'm!" said the king, "I do not trust their hypocritical faces; there is especially down there a Gascon face. Come here, monsieur."

D'Artagnan, who understood that the compliment was addressed to him, approached, putting on his most despairing air.

"Well, what did you tell me, then, that he was a young man? He is a child, Monsieur de Tréville, a veritable child! And it is he who gave that severe sword thrust to Jussac?"

"And those two fine sword thrusts to Bernajoux."

"Truly!"

"Not to mention," said Athos, "that if he had not rescued me from the hands of Biscarat, I should most certainly not have the honor of making my very humble bow to Your Majesty at this moment."

"But this Béarnais is a veritable demon, ventre-saint-gris! as my father the king would have said, Monsieur de Tréville. At that trade, one must pierce many doublets and break many swords. Now, Gascons are always poor, are they not?"

"Sire, I must say that gold mines have not yet been found in their mountains, though the Lord should grant that miracle in reward for the manner in which they supported the claims of your father the king."

"Which means that it is the Gascons who made me king myself, does it not, Tréville, since I am my father's son? Well, so be it, I do not say no. La Chesnaye, go and see if, by searching all my pockets, you can find forty pistoles; and if you find them, bring them to me. And now, let us see, young man, hand on heart, how did this happen?"

D'Artagnan recounted the adventure of the day before in all its details: how, not having been able to sleep for joy at seeing His Majesty, he had arrived at his friends' house three hours before the time of the audience; how they had gone together to the gaming house, and how, from the fear he had expressed of receiving a ball in the face, he had been mocked by Bernajoux, who had almost paid for this mockery with the loss of his life, and M. de La Trémouille, who had nothing to do with it, with the loss of his hotel.

"That is right," murmured the king; "yes, that is how the duke told me the story. Poor cardinal! seven men in two days, and among his most beloved; but that is enough, gentlemen, you hear! it is enough: you have taken your revenge for the Rue Férou, and more; you must be satisfied."

"If Your Majesty is satisfied," said Tréville, "we are."

“Stories of the world, in your language.”