"Decidedly," said D'Artagnan to himself, "I have struck a good vein.That star which shines once in the life of every man, which shone forJob and Iris, the most unfortunate of the Jews and the poorest of theGreeks, is come at last to shine on me. I will commit no folly, I willtake advantage of it; it comes quite late enough to find me reasonable."
He supped that evening, in very good humor, with his friend Athos;he said nothing to him about the expected donation, but he could notforbear questioning his friend, while eating, about country produce,sowing, and planting. Athos replied complacently, as he always did. Hisidea was that D'Artagnan wished to become a land-owner, only he couldnot help regretting, more than once, the absence of the lively humorand amusing sallies of the cheerful companion of former days. In fact,D'Artagnan was so absorbed, that, with his knife, he took advantage ofthe grease left at the bottom of his plate, to trace ciphers and makeadditions of surprising rotundity.
The order, or rather license, for their embarkation, arrived at Athos'slodgings that evening. While this paper was remitted to the comte,another messenger brought to D'Artagnan a little bundle of parchments,adorned with all the seals employed in setting off property deeds inEngland. Athos surprised him turning over the leaves of these differentacts which establish the transmission of property. The prudentMonk--others would say the generous Monk--had commuted the donationinto a sale, and acknowledged the receipt of the sum of fifteen thousandcrowns as the price of the property ceded. The messenger was gone.D'Artagnan still continued reading, Athos watched him with a smile.D'Artagnan, surprising one of those smiles over his shoulder, put thebundle in its wrapper.
"I beg your pardon," said Athos.
"Oh! not at all, my friend," replied the lieutenant, "I shall tellyou----"
"No, don't tell me anything, I beg you; orders are things so sacred,that to one's brother, one's father, the person charged with such ordersshould never open his mouth. Thus I, who speak to you, and love you moretenderly than brother, father, or all the world----"
"Except your Raoul?"
"I shall love Raoul still better when he shall be a man, and I shallhave seen him develop himself in all the phases of his character and hisactions--as I have seen you, my friend."
"You said, then, that you had an order likewise, and that you would notcommunicate it to me."
"Yes, my dear D'Artagnan."
The Gascon sighed. "There was a time," said he, "when you would haveplaced that order open upon the table, saying, 'D'Artagnan, read thisscrawl to Porthos, Aramis, and to me.'"
"That is true. Oh! that was the time of youth, confidence, the generousseason when the blood commands, when it is warmed by feeling!"
"Well! Athos, will you allow me to tell you?"
"Speak, my friend!"
"That delightful time, that generous season, that ruling by warm blood,were all very fine things, no doubt; but I do not regret them at all.It is absolutely like the period of studies. I have constantly met withfools who would boast of the days of pensums, ferules and crusts of drybread. It is singular, but I never loved all that; for my part, howeveractive and sober I might be (you know if I was so, Athos), howeversimple I might appear in my clothes, I would not the less have preferredthe braveries and embroideries of Porthos to my little perforatedcassock, which gave passage to the wind in winter and the sun in summer.I should always, my friend, mistrust him who would pretend to preferevil to good. Now, in times past all went wrong with me, and every monthfound a fresh hole in my cassock and in my skin, a gold crown less in mypoor purse; of that execrable time of small beer and see-saw, I regretabsolutely nothing, nothing, nothing save our friendship; for within meI have a heart, and it is a miracle that heart has not been dried upby the wind of poverty which passed through the holes of my cloak, orpierced by the swords of all shapes which passed through the holes in mypoor flesh."
"Do not regret our friendship," said Athos, "that will only die withourselves. Friendship is composed, above all things, of memories andhabits, and if you have just now made a little satire upon mine, becauseI hesitate to tell you the nature of my mission into France----"
"Who! I?--Oh! heavens! if you knew, my dear friend, how indifferent allthe missions of the world will henceforth become to me!" And he laid hishand upon the parchment in his vest pocket.
Athos rose from the table and called the host in order to pay thereckoning.
"Since I have known you, my friend," said D'Artagnan, "I have neverdischarged the reckoning. Porthos often did, Aramis sometimes, and you,you almost always drew out your purse with the dessert. I am now richand should like to try if it is heroic to pay."
"Do so," said Athos; returning his purse to his pocket.
The two friends then directed their steps towards the port, not,however, without D'Artagnan's frequently turning round to watch thetransportation of his dear crowns. Night had just spread her thick veilover the yellow waters of the Thames; they heard those noises of casksand pulleys, the preliminaries of preparing to sail which had so manytimes made the hearts of the musketeers beat when the dangers of the seawere the least of those they were going to face. This time they wereto embark on board a large vessel which awaited them at Gravesend,and Charles II., always delicate in small matters, had sent one ofhis yachts, with twelve men of his Scotch guard, to do honor to theambassador he was sending to France. At midnight the yacht had depositedits passengers on board the vessel, and at eight o'clock in themorning, the vessel landed the ambassador and his friend on the wharf atBoulogne. Whilst the comte, with Grimaud, was busy procuring horsesto go straight to Paris, D'Artagnan hastened to the hostelry where,according to his orders, his little army was to wait for him. Thesegentlemen were at breakfast upon oysters, fish, and spiced brandy, whenD'Artagnan appeared. They were all very gay, but not one of them hadyet exceeded the bounds of reason. A hurrah of joy welcomed the general."Here I am," said D'Artagnan, "the campaign is ended. I am come to bringto each his supplement of pay, as agreed upon." Their eyes sparkled."I will lay a wager there are not, at this moment, a hundred crownsremaining in the purse of the richest among you."
"That is true," cried they in chorus.
"Gentlemen," said D'Artagnan, "then, this is the last order. The treatyof commerce has been concluded thanks to our coup-de-main which madeus masters of the most skillful financier of England, for now I amat liberty to confess to you that the man we had to carry off was thetreasurer of General Monk."
This word treasurer produced a certain effect on his army. D'Artagnanobserved that the eyes of Menneville alone did not evince perfect faith."This treasurer," he continued, "I conveyed to a neutral territory,Holland; I forced him to sign the treaty; I have even reconducted himto Newcastle, and as he was obliged to be satisfied with our proceedingstowards him--the deal coffer being always carried without jolting, andbeing lined softly, I asked for a gratification for you. Here it is." Hethrew a respectable-looking purse upon the cloth; and all involuntarilystretched out their hands. "One moment, my lambs," said D'Artagnan; "ifthere are profits, there are also charges."
"Oh! oh!" murmured they.
"We are about to find ourselves, my friends, in a position that wouldnot be tenable for people without brains. I speak plainly: we arebetween the gallows and the Bastile."
"Oh! oh!" said the chorus.
"That is easily understood. It was necessary to explain to General Monkthe disappearance of his treasurer. I waited, for that purpose, till thevery unhopedfor moment of the restoration of King Charles II., who isone of my friends."
The army exchanged a glance of satisfaction in reply to the sufficientlyproud look of D'Artagnan. "The king being restored, I restored to Monkhis man of business, a little plucked, it is true, but, in short,I restored him. Now, General Monk, when he pardoned me, for he haspardoned me, could not help repeating these words to me, which I chargeevery one of you to engrave deeply there, between the eyes, under thevault of the cranium:--'Monsieur, the joke has been a good one, but Idon't naturally like jokes; if ever a w
ord of what you have done' (youunderstand me, Menneville) 'escapes from your lips, or the lips of yourcompanions, I have, in my government of Scotland and Ireland, sevenhundred and forty-one wooden gibbets, of strong oak, clamped with iron,and freshly greased every week. I will make a present of one of thesegibbets to each of you, and observe well, M. d'Artagnan,' added he(observe it also, M. Menneville), 'I shall still have seven hundred andthirty left for my private pleasure. And still further----'"
"Ah! ah!" said the auxiliaries, "is there more still?"
"A mere trifle. 'Monsieur d'Artagnan, I send to the king of France thetreaty in question, with a request that he will cast into the Bastileprovisionally, and then send to me, all who have taken part in thisexpedition; and that is a prayer with which the king will certainlycomply.'"
A cry of terror broke from all corners of the table.
"There! there! there," said D'Artagnan, "this brave M. Monk hasforgotten one thing, and that is he does not know the name of any one ofyou, I alone know you, and it is not I, you may well believe, who willbetray you. Why should I? As for you--I cannot suppose you will be sillyenough to denounce yourselves, for then the king, to spare himself theexpense of feeding and lodging you, will send you off to Scotland, wherethe seven hundred and forty-one gibbets are to be found. That is all,messieurs; I have not another word to add to what I have had the honorto tell you. I am sure you have understood me perfectly well, have younot, M. Menneville?"
"Perfectly," replied the latter.
"Now the crowns!" said D'Artagnan. "Shut the doors," he cried, andopened the bag upon the table, from which rolled several fine goldcrowns. Every one made a movement towards the floor.
"Gently!" cried D'Artagnan. "Let no one stoop, and then I shall notbe out in my reckoning." He found it all right, gave fifty of thosesplendid crowns to each man, and received as many benedictions as hebestowed pieces. "Now," said he, "if it were possible for you to reforma little, if you could become good and honest citizens----"
"That is rather difficult," said one of the troop.
"What then, captain?" said another.
"Because I might be able to find you again, and, who knows what othergood fortune?" He made a sign to Menneville, who listened to all hesaid with a composed air. "Menneville," said he, "come with me. Adieu mybrave fellows! I need not warn you to be discreet."
Menneville followed him, whilst the salutations of the auxiliaries weremingled with the sweet sound of the money clinking in their pockets.
"Menneville," said D'Artagnan, when they were once in the street, "youwere not my dupe; beware of being so. You did not appear to me to haveany fear of the gibbets of Monk, or the Bastile of his majesty, KingLouis XIV., but you will do me the favor of being afraid of me. Thenlisten at the smallest word that shall escape you, I will kill you asI would a fowl. I have absolution from our holy father, the pope, in mypocket."
"I assure you I know absolutely nothing, my dear M. d'Artagnan, and thatyour words have all been to me so many articles of faith."
"I was quite sure you were an intelligent fellow," said the musketeer;"I have tried you for a length of time. These fifty gold crowns whichI give you above the rest will prove the esteem I have for you. Takethem."
"Thanks, Monsieur d'Artagnan," said Menneville.
"With that sum you can really become an honest man," replied D'Artagnan,in the most serious tone possible. "It would be disgraceful for a mindlike yours, and a name you no longer dare to bear, to sink forever underthe rust of an evil life. Become a gallant man, Menneville, and live fora year upon those hundred gold crowns: it is a good provision; twice thepay of a high officer. In a year come to me, and, Mordioux! I will makesomething of you."
Menneville swore, as his comrades had sworn, that he would be as silentas the grave. And yet some one must have spoken; and as, certainly, itwas not one of the nine companions, and quite as certainly, it wasnot Menneville, it must have been D'Artagnan, who, in his quality of aGascon, had his tongue very near to his lips. For, in short, if it werenot he, who could it be? And how can it be explained that the secret ofthe deal coffer pierced with holes should come to our knowledge, andin so complete a fashion that we have, as has been seen, related thehistory of it in all its most minute details; details which, besides,throw a light as new as unexpected upon all that portion of the historyof England which has been left, up to the present day, completely indarkness by the historian of our neighbors?
CHAPTER 38. In which it is seen that the French Grocer had already beenestablished in the Seventeenth Century
Ten Years Later Page 41
