Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 190 — page 10: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

§ ‘ x 1G tion him, but by yourself, face to face, without witness- es ; and that I may see your majesty as soon as you have parted from the duke.”’ “ Ay, marry, indeed !’’ said the king ; ‘‘and. you will be judged by what the duke may say ?”’ “Yes, sire.”’ ‘You will accept his judgment ?”’ * Without hesitation !’’ replied Treville. . “And will you submit to the reparations he may re- quire ?” “Entirely !’’ “La Chesnaye!’’ exclaimed the king, ‘‘La Chesnaye, let some. one go immediately to inquire for M. de la Tremouille. I wish to speak with him this shee: ght “Your majesty gives me your word that you will not speak with anyone between M. de la Tremouille and myself ?’’ “With no one, on the wordofa gentleman !’’ replied the king “To-morrow then, sire ?’’ | “To-morrow, sir ?”’ “ At what hour will it please your majesty ?” *“*At any hour you desire |” . “Butin coming too early in the morning, I fear [may wake your majesty |!” - “Wake me! Do I sleep? I never sleep now, sir! Imay dream sometimes, nothing more, So come as early as you like, at seven o'clock, if you choose ; but woe be to you if your musketeers are in jault !’’ “If my musketeers are guilty, sire, the guilty shall be delivered up to your majesty, who shall order every- thing at your pleasure. Does your majesty require any- thing else? You have but to speak, and you shall be obeyed !”’ ** No, sir, no! baen named Louis the Just. morrow, sir! Farewell!” ‘« May God preserve your majesty to that time !”’ However little the king might sleep, M. de Treville slept even less. He had told the musketeers and their comrade, to be with him at half-past six in the morning: and he took them with him without telling them any- thing, or making any promise; confessing to them, that their favor, as well as hisown, was not worth more than the chances of a cast of dice. He lett them at the foot of the staircase. Ifthe king remained angry with them, they were to go away with- out being seen; and if his majesty consented to receive them, they would be ready at a call. On entering the king’s antechamber, M. de Treville found Chesnaye there, who informed him that M. de la Tremouille could not be found the evening before, and returned too late to be presented at the Louvre; that he had, in fact, but just arrived, and was now with tho king. This circumstance much pleased M. de Treville, who was certain from this, that no suggestion could be in- sinuated between M, de la Tremouille’s deposition, and his own audience. Scarcely, indeed, had ten minutes , before the door of the king’s cabinet opened, and de Treville saw M. de la Tremouille come out. The duke immediately said to him: “ M. de Treville, his majesty sent for me, to inquire into the circumstances that happened yesterday morn- ing at my hotel. Ihaye told him the truth, that the fault lay with my people, and that I was ready to make you my excuses. As I have met you, will you now re- ceive them,anddo me the favor always to consider me as one of your friends?’ —_, “Sir,” said M. de Treviile, “I was so conyinced of It is not without reason that I have Farewell, then, till to- _ your loyalty, that I did not wish for any other defender with his majesty than yourself. I see that I did not deceive myself; and I thank you that there is still one man in France, of whom I may say what I have said of you, without danger, deception or mistake.” “Ttis well! it is well,’’ said the king, who had heard all these complaints. ‘ Only tell him, Treville, since he wishes for your friendship, that I also wish for his, but that he neglects me; that it is just three years since I have seen him; and that he only comes to me when I zend for him, Tell him this for me; for those are the kind of things which a king cannot say for himself |”’ “ Thanks, sire! thanks !’’ exclaimed the duke. “ But let me assure your majesty that it is not those (I do not refer to M. de Treville) whom you see every day, who are the most devoted to you.” “Ah: you heard what I said! So much the better, duke! so much the better!” said the king, advancing towards the door. ‘‘Ah! it is you, Treville! where are the musketeers ? I told you the day before yesterday to bring them! Why are they not here?” “They are below, sire, and with your permission, Chesnaye will call them up.” “Yes, yes! let them come directly ; it will soon be eight o'clock, and at nine I expect a visit! Go, duke! and above all things forget not to return. Come in Treville.” ! The duke bowed and departed. The moment that he opened the door, the three musketeers and d’Artagnan, conducted by beg te he at the top of the stairs. / «Qome, my brave fellows!’ said the king, “I must scold you!” The musketeers approached, bowing; d’Artagnan fol- lowing behind. “What! the devil!’ continued the king, “seven of his eminence’s guards, regularly doubled up by you in two days! It is too many, gentlemen ; it is too many ; at this rate his eminence will have to renew his regi- ment in three weeks, and I shall have to enforce the edicts in their full rigor. I say nothing of one by chance ; but seven in two days, I repeat it, are too many, a great deal too many!” “But your majesty perceives that they have come in sorrow ahd repentance, to excuse themselves. - and repentance!” said the king. ‘Ido sorrow - not putmuch trust in their hypocritical faces. There is, above all, a Gascon face in the background there! Come, here, you, sir !’’ D' , who comprehended that compliment was THE THREE GUARDSMEN. addressed to him, approached his majesty with a des- perately desponding look. “What! you mean to tell methen, that it was this youth—a mere boy, M. de Treville, quite a boy—who gave that terrible wound to Jussac ?” “And those two beautiful sword thrusts to Berna- joux?” said M, de Treville. “ Really !”’ “Without reckoning,” said Athos, “that if he had not rescued me from the hands of Biscarrat, I should cer- tainly not have the honor of paying my very humble reverence to your majesty.” “Why, M. de Treville, this Bearnese must be the very devil. Ventre saint-grin, as my father would have said, at this rate many doublets must be riddled, and lots of swords broken. Now the Gascons are al- ways poor, are they uot?” “Sire, I must say they have found no mines of gold in their mountains, though the Almighty owed them that recompense for the manner in which they sup- ported the cause of your father.”’ “Which is to say, is it not, Treville, that it was the Gascons who made me king, as I am my father’s son? Well, let it be so: I will not contradict it. La Ches- haye, go and see if by rummaging my pockets you can find forty pistoles ; andif you find them, bring them to me. And now let me hear, young man, your hand on your heart, how this happened ?” D’Artagnan told all, the circumstances of the adyen- ture; how, not being able to sleep, from the expecta- tion of seeing his majesty, he went to his friend's caphaod three hours before the time of the audience; how they went to the tennis-court; and how, on account of the fear be betrayed of being struck upon his face by a ball, he had been rallied by Bernajoux, who had nar- rowly escaped paying for this raillery with his life; and M. de Tremouille, who had nothing to do with it, with the loss of his hotel. “Tt is exactly so," murmured the king; “yes, it is exactly as the duke recounted the affair. Poor cardi- nalf Seven menin two days, and seven of his most valued soldiers, too! But this is sufficient, gentle- men; do you understand? You have taken your re- venge for the Rue Ferou, and more than enough. You ought now to be satisfied.” “So we are, if your majesty is,’”’ said Trevillo. “Yes! Lam,” replied the king; and taking a handful of gold from the hand of Chesnaye, and putting it into d’Artagnan’s, he added, ‘‘ there is proof of my satisfac- tion.” At this period, the independent notions which are now current were not yetin fashion. A gentleman re- ceived money from the king’s hand, without being hu- miliated. D’Artagnan, therefore, put the moh pistoles into his pocket, without any other ceremony than that of warmly thanking his majesty for the gift. “There,”’ said the king, examining his watch, “now that it is half-past eight, retire. I have told you that I expect some one at nine. Thanks for your devotion, gentlemen! I may rely upon it, may I not?” >) “Oh! sire!’ replied the four at once, ‘“ we will allow ourselves to be cut in pieces for your majesty !”’ “Well! well! Butit will be much better to remain whole, and you will be far more useful to me in that state. Treville,’’ added the king, in a low voice, as the others retired, ‘‘you have no situation vacant in the musketeers, and as we have decided thatit should be necessary to passa certain probation before entering that corps, place this young man in your brother-in- law, M. des Essart’s company of guar Ah! I quite enjoy the thought of the grimace that the cardinal will make: he will be furious ; but Idonot care, I bave right on my side.”’ he king bowed to Treville,who joined the musketeers, whom he found sharing the forty pistoles which his majesty had given d'Artagnan, The cardinal was in reality as furious as his master had anticipated: so furious, in fact, that for eight days he was not present at his majesty’s play. But this did not prevent the king from putting on the most charm- ing face, and asking‘ every time he met him, in a most insinuating tone: “Well! M. le Cardinal; how is your poor Berna- joux ? and your poor Jussac?” CHAPTER VII. THE DOMESTIC MANNERS OF THE MUSKETEERS. WHEN (’ an had left the Louvre, and had con- sulted his ends what he ought to do with his forty pistoles, Athos advised him to order dinner, and Porthos and Aramis to hire a Sop ba The dinner was accomplished on the same day, and the lacquey waited at table. The dinner had been or- dered by Athos; and the lacquey, who had been provided by Porthos, was a native of Picardy, whom the glorious musketeer had enlisted, on that very day, for the occa- sion, whilst he was sauntering about on the bridge of Latournelle, spitting into the stream. Porthos pre- tended that t occupation was a proof of meditative organization, and had hired him without any other recommendation. The magnificent je grelige of the entleman, on whose account he had been hired, se- luced Planchet, for that was the name of the Picard; he had, indeed, been slightly disappointed when he found, on bis arrival, that the situation he expected was already held by a brother lacquey of the name of Musqueton, and when Porthos told him that his family arrangements, though on a large scale, did not admit of two servants, and that he must, therefore, wait on d’Ar But when he attended at the dinner which his master gave, and saw him, when paying, draw from his pocket a handful of gold, he believed his fortune made, and thanked heaven that he had fallen into the possession of such @ Creesus. In that opinion he re- mained until the feast was ended, and he had m up for his long abstinence upon the remnants. But, on making his master’s bed, the visions of Planchet all vanished. There was only that one bed in the cham- bers, which consisted merely of an ante-room and bed- room. Planchet slept upon a coverlet, taken from d’Artagnan’s bed, with which d’Artagnan from that time forward dispensed, Athos, on his part, had a valet, whom he had drilled to his service in a manner peculiar to himself, and whom he called Grimand. Me was very taciturn, this worthy signor—we mean, understand, Athos, not his man. For tour or five years that he had lived in the closest intimacy with his companions, Porthos and Aramis, these two had often seen him smile, but never remembered to have heard him laugh. His words were brief and expressive, saying what he wished them to express, but no more; no ornaments or enibellishments whatever. Although Athos was scarcely thirty, and possessed of great personal and mental attractions, no one ever knew him to have an affair of the heart. He never spoke of the female sex; and although he did not revent such conversation from others, tt was evident, from bitter and miisanthropical remarks, that it was disagreeable to him. His reserve, austerity, and silence made him almost an old man, and he had, therefore, accustomed Grimaud, that he might not interrupt his habits, to obey asimple gesture, or even a motion of his lips. He never spoke to him but in extreme cases. Sometimes Grimaud, who feared his master like fire, but at the same time was greatly attached to him, be- lieved he perfectly understood him, rushed forward to execute his orders, and did something contrary to what was wanted. Then Athos shrugged his shoulders, and, without putting himself in a rage, belabored him soundly. On such days he spoke little. Porthos, as is easy to see, had a character diametric- ally opposed to that of Athos; be not only spoke a great deal, butin aloud voice. It must be owned, to do him justice, that it was of little consequence to him, whether any one attended to him or not; he talked for the mere pleasure of speaking, or of hearing himeelf talk; and talked, too, of everything but the sciences, which he never alluded to but to express the inveter- ate hatred he had from his infancy entertained towards learned men. He had not, such an aristocratic air as Athos, and the sense of his inferiority on that point had,at the commencement of that connection, made him often unjust towards that gentleman, whom he endeavored to surpass by the splendor of his dress. But, in his simple uniform coat, merely, and by the manner in which he carried himself, Athos took at once the rank to which he waa entitled, and sent the foppish Porthos back to the second place. Porthos consoled himself by filling M. de Treville’s ante-cham- ber, and the guard-room of the Louvre, with the ac- count of his conquests—a subject upon which Athos never spoke—and boasted of nothing less than a foreign princess, who was deeply enamoured of him. An old proverb says: “ Like master like man.” Lef us then pass from the valet of Athos, to the valet of Porthos, from Grimaud to Musqueton. Musqueton waa a Norman, whose pacific name of Boniface, hia master had changed to the much more sonorous and warlike one of Musqueton. He had entered Porthos’ service on the sole condition of being lodged, and clothed, but in &@ sumptuous manner; and he omly demanded two hours a day to provide for his other wants. Porthos had accepted the bargain, and things went on wonder- fully well. He had old doublets and cloaks cut up and turned in a manner that made Musqueton cut a very good figure. Asto Aramis, whose character we believe we have sufficiently explained, and which, as well as those of his comrades, we shall more fully develop hereafter, his lacquey was named Bazin. Thanks to the hopes which his master entertained of some day taking or- ders, he was always dressed in black, as became 4 churchman’s servant. He was of the province of Berri; thirty-five or forty years of age; mild, peaceable, and fat; and passed his leisure in reading pious works. He was dextrous in preparing a dinner for two; of ex- cellent p aratt f though of few dishes. In all else he was dumb, blind, deaf, and of approved fidelity. Now that we know, at least superficially, the masters and the men, let us turn to their habitations. Athos dwelt in the rue Ferou, at two paces from the Luxembourg. His habitation, or lodging, consisted of two small rooms in a yery neatly-furnished house, whose mistress was yet young and pretty, but ogled him in vain. Some few fragments of long-departed splendor adorned the walls of this modest lodging ; such as arichly-mounted sword, which looked of tha age of Francis 1, and of which the handle alone, en- crusted with precious stones, might be worth about two hundred pistoles, which, nevertheless, Athos, even in moments of the greatest distress, could never be per- suaded to dispose of, or to pawn. This sword had long excited the suspicion of Porthos, who would will- ingly have given ten years of his life for the posses- sion of it. One day when, as he said, he had an appointment with a duchess, he endeavored to borrow it of Athos. But his friend, without saying a word, emptied his pockets of all his money and trinkets, purses, points, and gold chains, and offered them all to Porthos; but as for the sword, said he, it was fixed to its place, and ought only to leave it when its master quitted the lodging. Besides this sword, he had the rait of a nobleman, of the time of Henry III, dressed with great elegance, and adorned with the order of the Holy Ghost: and this sea had some “~ resemblance to Athos, a certain amily likeness which denoted that this t noble, a royal knight, was his ancestor. Lastly, a box of splendid jewelry-work, with the same arms as the sword and portrait, made a central ornament for the chimney-piece, which clashed fearfully with the rest of the furniture. Athos always carried the key of this box: but one day he opened it before Porthos, and Porthos could bear witness that it contained only letters and papers—love- letters, and family records, no doubt. Porthos inhabited a lodging of vast siee, and of most (EC) (@) JOO Oo at ee hi il ae eee ee ee eli ~~. — a RET ema egg saat ¥ -,) is Ci 3 . “