Man in the Iron Mask (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

by Alexandre Dumas

  “Monsieur l’Ambassadeur, shall we talk about business?”

  D’Artagnan immediately withdrew, from politeness. He directed his steps towards the chimney, within hearing of what the King was going to say to Monsieur, who, evidently very uneasy, had gone to him. The face of the King was animated. Upon his brow was stamped a will, the redoubtable expression of which already met with no more contradiction in France, and was soon to meet with no more in Europe.

  “Monsieur,” said the King to his brother, “I am not pleased with M. le Chevalier de Lorraine. You, who do him the honour to protect him, must advise him to travel for a few months.” These words fell with the crush of an avalanche upon Monsieur, who adored this favourite, and concentrated all his af fections in him.

  “In what has the Chevalier been able to displease your Majesty?” cried he, darting a furious look at Madame.

  “I will tell you that when he is gone,” replied the impassible King. “And also when Madame, here, shall have crossed over into England.”

  “Madame! into England!” murmured Monsieur, in a perfect state of stupor.

  “In a week, my brother,” continued the King, “whilst we two will go whither I will tell you.” And the King turned upon his heel, after having smiled in his brother’s face, to sweeten a little the bitter draught he had given him.

  During this time Colbert was talking with the Duc d’Alméda.

  “Monsieur,” said Colbert to Aramis, “this is the moment for us to come to an understanding. I have made your peace with the King, and I owed that clearly to a man of your merit; but as you have often expressed friendship for me, an opportunity presents itself for giving me a proof of it. You are, besides, more a Frenchman than a Spaniard. Shall we have, answer me frankly, the neutrality of Spain, if we undertake anything against the United Provinces?”aq

  “Monsieur,” replied Aramis, “the interest of Spain is very clear. To embroil Europe with the United Provinces, against which subsists the ancient malice of their conquered liberty, is our policy, but the King of France is allied with the United Provinces. You are not ignorant, besides, that it would be a maritime war, and that France is not in a state to make such a one with advantage.”

  Colbert, turning round at this moment, saw d‘Artagnan, who was seeking an interlocutor, during the “aside” of the King and Monsieur. He called him, at the same time saying in a low voice to Aramis, “We may talk with M. d’Artagnan, I suppose?”

  “Oh! certainly,” replied the ambassador.

  “We were saying, M. d’Alméda and I,” said Colbert, “that war with the United Provinces would be a maritime war.”

  “That’s evident enough,” replied the musketeer.

  “And what do you think of it, Monsieur d’Artagnan.”

  “I think that to carry that war on successfully, you must have a very large land army.”

  “What did you say?” said Colbert, thinking he had ill-understood him.

  “Why such a land army?” said Aramis.

  “Because the King will be beaten by sea if he has not the English with him, and that when beaten by sea, he will soon be invaded, either by the Dutch in his ports, or by the Spaniards by land.”

  “And Spain neutral?” asked Aramis.

  “Neutral as long as the King shall be the stronger,” rejoined d’Artagnan.

  Colbert admired that sagacity which never touched a question without enlightening it thoroughly. Aramis smiled, as he had long known that in diplomacy d‘Artagnan acknowledged no master. Colbert, who, like all proud men, dwelt upon his fantasy with a certainty of success, resumed the subject: “Who told you, M. d’Artagnan, that the King had no navy?”

  “Oh! I have taken no heed of these details,” replied the captain. “I am but a middling sailor. Like all nervous people, I hate the sea; and yet I have an idea that with ships, France being a seaport with two hundred heads, we might have sailors.”

  Colbert drew from his pocket a little oblong book, divided into two columns. On the first were the names of vessels, on the other the figures recapitulating the number of cannon and men requisite to equip these ships. “I have had the same idea as you,” said he to d’Artagnan, “and I have had an account drawn up of the vessels we have altogether-thirty-five ships.”

  “Thirty-five ships! that is impossible!” cried d’Artagnan.

  “Something like two thousand pieces of cannon,” said Colbert. “That is what the King possesses at this moment. With thirty-five vessels we can make three squadrons, but I must have five.”

  “Five!” cried Aramis.

  “They will be afloat before the end of the year, gentlemen; the King will have fifty ships of the line. We may venture on a contest with them, may we not?”

  “To build vessels,” said d’Artagnan, “is difficult, but possible. As to arming them, how is that to be done? In France there are neither foundries nor military docks.”

  “Bah!” replied Colbert, with a gay tone, “I have instituted all that this year and a half past. Did you not know it? Don’t you know M. d’Imfreville?”

  “D‘Imfreville?” replied d’Artagnan; “no.”

  “He is a man I have discovered; he has a speciality; he is a man of genius—he knows how to set men to work. It is he who has founded cannon and cut the woods of Bourgogne. And then, Monsieur l’Ambassadeur, you may not believe what I am going to tell you, but I have a further idea.”

  “Oh, monsieur!” said Aramis civilly, “I always believe you.”

  “Figure to yourself that, calculating upon the character of the Dutch, our allies, I said to myself, ‘They are merchants, they are friends with the King; they will be happy to sell to the King what they fabricate for themselves; then, the more we buy’—Ah! I must add this: I have Forant—do you know Forant, d’Artagnan?”

  Colbert in his warmth, forgot himself; he called the captain simply d’Artagnan, as the King did. But the captain only smiled at it.

  “No,” replied he, “I don’t know him.”

  “That is another man I have discovered, with a genius for buying. This Forant has purchased for me 350,000 pounds of iron in balls, 200,000 pounds of powder, twelve cargoes of Northern timber, matches, grenades, pitch, tar—I know not what! with a saving of seven per cent. upon what all those articles would cost me fabricated in France.”

  “That is a good idea,” replied d’Artagnan, “to have Dutch balls founded, which will return to the Dutch.”

  “Is it not, with loss too?” And Colbert laughed aloud. He was delighted with his own joke.

  “Still further,” added he; “these same Dutch are building for the King at this moment, six vessels after the model of the best of their marine. Destouches—Ah! perhaps you don’t know Destouches?”

  “No, monsieur.”

  “He is a man who has a glance singularly sure to discern, when a ship is launched, what are the defects and qualities of that ship—that is valuable, please to observe! Nature is truly whimsical. Well, this Destouches appeared to me to be a man likely to be useful in port, and he is superintending the construction of six vessels of 78,ar which the Provinces are building for His Majesty. It results from all this, my dear Monsieur d’Artagnan, that the King, if he wished to quarrel with the Provinces, would have a very pretty fleet. Now, you know bet ter than anybody else if the land army is good.”

  D’Artagnan and Aramis looked at each other, wondering at the mysterious labours this man had effected in a few years. Colbert understood them, and was touched by this best of flatteries.

  “If we in France were ignorant of what was going on,” said d’Artagnan, “out of France still less must be known.”

  “That is why I told Monsieur l’Ambassadeur,” said Colbert, “that Spain promising its neutrality, England helping us—”

  “If England assists you,” said Aramis, “I engage for the neutrality of Spain.”

  “I take you at your word,” hastened Colbert to reply with blunt good humour. “And talking of Spain, you have not the Gold
en Fleece, Monsieur d’Alméda. I heard the King say the other day that he should like to see you wear the Grand Cordon of St. Michael.”

  Aramis bowed. “Oh!” thought d’Artagnan, “and Porthos is no longer here! How many yards of ribbon would there be for him in these decorations! Good Porthos!”

  “Monsieur d’Artagnan,” resumed Colbert, “between us two, you will have, I would wager, an inclination to lead your musketeers into Holland. Can you swim?” And he laughed like a man in a very good humour.

  “Like an eel,” replied d’Artagnan.

  “Ah! but there are some rough passages of canals and marshes yonder, and the best swimmers are sometimes drowned there.”

  “It is my profession to die for His Majesty,” said the musketeer. “Only, as it is seldom that in war much water is met without a little fire, I declare to you beforehand that I will do my best to choose fire. I am getting old; water freezes me—fire warms, Monsieur Colbert.”

  And d‘Artagnan looked so handsome in juvenile vigour and pride as he pronounced these words, that Colbert, in his turn, could not help admiring him. D’Artagnan perceived the effect he had produced. He remembered that the best tradesman is he who fixes a high price upon his goods when they are valuable. He prepared then his price in advance.

  “So then,” said Colbert, “we go into Holland?”

  “Yes,” replied d’Artagnan; “only—”

  “Only?” said M. Colbert.

  “Only,” repeated d’Artagnan, “there is in everything the question of interest and the question of self-love. It is a very fine title, that of captain of the musketeers; but observe this: we have now the King’s guards and the military household of the King. A captain of musketeers ought either to command all that, and then he would absorb a hundred thousand livres a year for expenses of representation and table—”

  “Well! but do you suppose, by chance, that the King would haggle with you?” said Colbert.

  “Eh! monsieur, you have not understood me,” replied d’Artagnan, sure of having carried the question of interest; “I was telling you that I, an old captain, formerly chief of the King’s guard, having precedence over the marshals of France—I saw myself one day in the trenches with two other equals, the captain of the guards and the colonel commanding the Swiss. Now, at no price will I suffer that. I have old habits; I will stand to them.”

  Colbert felt this blow, but he was prepared for it.

  “I have been thinking of what you said just now,” replied he.

  “About what, monsieur?”

  “We were speaking of canals and marshes in which people are drowned.”

  “Well?”

  “Well! if they are drowned, it is for want of a boat, a plank, or a stick.”

  “Of a stick, however short it may be,” said d’Artagnan.

  “Exactly,” said Colbert. “And, therefore, I never heard of an instance of a marshal of France being drowned.”

  D’Artagnan became pale with joy, and in a not very firm voice: “People would be very proud of me in my country,” said he, “if I were a marshal of France; but a man must have commanded an expedition in chief to obtain the baton.”

  “Monsieur!” said Colbert, “here is in this pocket-book, which you will study, a plan of a campaign you will have to lead a body of troops to carry out in the next spring.”

  D’Artagnan took the book tremblingly, and his fingers meeting with those of Colbert, the minister pressed the hand of the musketeer loyally.

  “Monsieur,” said he, “we had both a revenge to take, one over the other. I have begun; it is now your turn.”

  “I will do you justice, monsieur,” replied d’Artagnan, “and implore you to tell the King that the first opportunity that shall offer, he may depend upon a victory, or seeing me dead.”

  “Then I will have the fleur-de-lis for your marshal’s baton prepared immediately,” said Colbert.

  On the morrow of this day, Aramis, who was setting out for Madrid, to negotiate the neutrality of Spain, came to embrace d’Artagnan at his hotel.

  “Let us love each other for four,” said d’Artagnan; “we are now but two.”

  “And you will, perhaps, never see me again, dear d’Artagnan,” said Aramis;—“if you knew how I have loved you! I am old, I am extinguished, I am dead.”

  “My friend,” said d’Artagnan, “you will live longer than I shall: diplomacy commands you to live; but for my part, honour condemns me to die.”

  “Bah! such men as we are, Monsieur le Marshal,” said Aramis, “only die satiated with joy or glory.”

  “Ah!” replied d’Artagnan, with a melancholy smile, “I assure you, Monsieur le Duc, I feel very little appetite for either.”

  They once more embraced, and, two hours after, they were separated.

  The Death of d’Artagnan

  CONTRARY TO WHAT ALWAYS happens, whether in politics or morals, each kept his promise, and did honour to his engagements.

  The King recalled M. de Guiche, and banished M. le Chevalier de Lorraine; so that Monsieur became ill in consequence. Madame set out for London, where she applied herself so earnestly to make her brother, Charles II, have a taste for the political councils of Mademoiselle de Kéroualle, that the alliance between England and France was signed, and the English vessels, ballasted by a few millions of French gold, made a terrible campaign against the fleets of the United Provinces. Charles II had promised Mademoiselle de Kéroualle a little gratitude for her good councils; he made her Duchess of Portsmouth. Colbert had promised the King vessels, munitions, and victories. He kept his word, as is well known. At length Aramis, upon whose promises there was least dependence to be placed, wrote Colbert the following letter, on the subject of the negotiations which he had undertaken at Madrid:—

  “Monsieur Colbert,—

  I have the honour to expedite to you the R. P. d‘Oliva, general ad interim of the Society of Jesus, my provisional successor. The reverend father will explain to you, Monsieur Colbert, that I preserve to myself the direction of all the affairs of the Order which concern France and Spain; but that I am not willing to retain the title of general, which would throw too much light upon the march of the negotiations with which His Catholic Majesty wishes to entrust me. I shall resume that title by the command of His Majesty, when the labours I have undertaken in concert with you, for the great glory of God and his Church, shall be brought to a good end. The R. P. d’Oliva will inform you likewise, monsieur, of the consent which His Catholic Majesty gives to the signature of a treaty which assures the neutrality of Spain, in the event of a war between France and the United Provinces. The consent will be valid, even if England, instead of being active, should satisfy herself with remaining neutral. As to Portugal, of which you and I have spoken, monsieur, I can assure you it will contribute with all its resources to assist the most Christian King in his war. I beg you, Monsieur Colbert, to preserve to me your friendship, as also to believe in my profound attachment, and to lay my respect at the feet of His Most Christian Majesty.

  (Signed) Le Duc d’Alméda.”

  Aramis had then performed more than he had promised; it remained to be known how the King, M. Colbert, and d’Artagnan would be faithful to each other. In the spring, as Colbert had predicted, the land army entered on its campaign. It preceded, in magnificent order, the court of Louis XIV, who, setting out on horseback, surrounded by carriages filled with ladies and courtiers, conducted the elite of his kingdom to this sanguinary fête. The officers of the army, it is true, had no other music but the artillery of the Dutch forts; but it was enough for a great number, who found in this war honours, advancement, fortune, or death.

  M. d’Artagnan set out commanding a body of twelve thousand men, cavalry and infantry, with which he was ordered to take the different places which form the knots of that strategic network which is called Friesland in Holland.as Never was an army conducted more gallantly to an expedition. The officers knew that their leader, prudent and skilful as he was brave, would not s
acrifice a single man, nor yield an inch of ground without necessity. He had the old habits of war, to live upon the country, keep his soldiers singing and the enemy weeping. The captain of the King’s musketeers placed his coquetry in showing that he knew his business. Never were opportunities better chosen, coups de main better supported, errors of the besieged taken better advantage of.

  The army commanded by d‘Artagnan took twelve small places within a month. He was engaged in besieging the thirteenth, which had held out five days. D’Artagnan caused the trenches to be opened without appearing to suppose that these people would ever allow themselves to be taken. The pioneers and labourers were, in the army of this man, a body full of emulation, ideas, and zeal, because he treated them like soldiers, knew how to render their work glorious, and never allowed them to be killed if he could prevent it. It should have been seen then, with what eagerness the marshy glebes of Holland were turned over. Those turf-heaps, those mounds of potter’s clay melted at the word of the soldiers like butter in the vast frying-pans of the Friesland housewives.

  M. d‘Artagnan despatched a courier to the King to give him an account of the last successes, which redoubled the good humour of His Majesty and his inclination to amuse the ladies. These victories of M. d’Artagnan gave so much majesty to the Prince, that Madame de Montespan no longer called him anything but Louis the Invincible. So that Mademoiselle de la Vallière, who only called the King Louis the Victorious, lost much of His Majesty’s favour. Besides, her eyes were frequently red, and for an Invincible nothing is more disagreeable than a mistress who weeps while everything is smiling around her. The star of Mademoiselle de la Vallière was being drowned in the horizon in clouds and tears. But the gaiety of Madame de Montespan redoubled with the successes of the King, and consoled him for every other unpleasant circumstance. It was to d’Artagnan the King owed this; and His Majesty was anxious to acknowledge these services; he wrote to M. Colbert:—