Part 64 (1/2)
The Gascon sighed. ”There was a time,” said he, ”when you would have placed that order open upon the table, saying, 'D'Artagnan, read this scrawl to Porthos, Aramis, and to me.'”
”That is true. Oh! that was the time of youth, confidence, the generous season 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 with fools who would boast of the days of pensums, ferules, and crusts of dry bread. It is singular, but I never loved all that; for my part, however active and sober I might be (you know if I was so, Athos), however simple I might appear in my clothes, I would not the less have preferred the braveries and embroideries of Porthos to my little perforated ca.s.sock, which gave pa.s.sage to the wind in winter and the sun in summer.
I should always, my friend, mistrust him who would pretend to prefer evil to good. Now, in times past all went wrong with me, and every month found a fresh hole in my ca.s.sock and in my skin, a gold crown less in my poor purse; of that execrable time of small beer and see-saw, I regret absolutely nothing, nothing, nothing save our friends.h.i.+p; for within me I have a heart, and it is a miracle that heart has not been dried up by the wind of poverty which pa.s.sed through all the holes of my cloak, or pierced by the swords of all shapes which pa.s.sed through the holes in my poor flesh.”
”Do not regret our friends.h.i.+p,” said Athos, ”that will only die with ourselves. Friends.h.i.+p is composed, above all things, of memories and habits, and if you have just now made a little satire upon mine, because I hesitate to tell you the nature of my mission into France--”
”Who! I?--Oh! heavens! if you knew, my dear friend, how indifferent all the missions of the world will henceforth become to me!” And he laid his hand upon the parchment in his vest pocket.
Athos rose from the table and called the host in order to pay the reckoning.
”Since I have known you, my friend,” said D'Artagnan, ”I have never discharged the reckoning. Porthos often did, Aramis sometimes, and you, you almost always drew out your purse with the dessert. I am now rich, and 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 the transportation of his dear crowns. Night had just spread her thick veil over the yellow waters of the Thames; they heard those noises of casks and pulleys, the preliminaries of preparing to sail which had so many times made the hearts of the musketeers beat when the dangers of the sea were the least of those they were going to face. This time they were to embark on board a large vessel which awaited them at Gravesend, and Charles II., always delicate in small affairs, had sent one of his yachts, with twelve men of his Scots guard, to do honor to the amba.s.sador he was sending to France. At midnight the yacht had deposited its pa.s.sengers on board the vessel, and at eight o'clock in the morning, the vessel landed the amba.s.sador and his friend on the wharf at Boulogne. Whilst the comte, with Grimaud, was busy procuring horses to go straight to Paris, D'Artagnan hastened to the hostelry where, according to his orders, his little army was to wait for him. These gentlemen were at breakfast upon oysters, fish, and spiced brandy, when D'Artagnan appeared. They were all very gay, but not one of them had yet 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 bring each his supplement of pay, as agreed upon.” Their eyes sparkled. ”I will lay a wager there are not, at this moment, a hundred crowns remaining 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 treaty of commerce has been concluded, thanks to our coup-de-main which made us masters of the most skillful financier of England, for now I am at liberty to confess to you that the man we had to carry off was the treasurer of General Monk.”
This word treasurer produced a certain effect on his army. D'Artagnan observed 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 him to Newcastle, and he was obliged to be satisfied with our proceedings towards him--the deal coffer being always carried without jolting, and being lined softly, I asked a gratification for you. Here it is.” He threw a respectable-looking purse upon the cloth; and all involuntarily stretched out their hands. ”One moment, my lambs,” said D'Artagnan; ”if there are profits, there are also charges.”
”Oh! oh!” murmured they.
”We are about to find ourselves, my friends, in a position which would not be tenable for people without brains. I speak plainly; we are between the gallows and the Bastile.”
”Oh! Oh!” said the chorus.
”That is easily understood. It was necessary to explain to General Monk the disappearance of his treasurer. I waited, for that purpose, till the unhoped-for moment of the restoration of King Charles II., who is one of my friends.”
This army exchanged a glance of satisfaction in reply to the sufficiently proud look of D'Artagnan. ”The king being restored, I restored to Monk his man of business, a little plucked, it is true, but, in short, I restored him. Now, General Monk, when he pardoned me, for he has pardoned me, could not help repeating these words to me, which I charge every one of you to engrave deeply there, between the eyes, under the vault of the cranium:--'Monsieur, the joke has been a good one, but I don't naturally like jokes; if ever a word of what you have done' (you understand me, Menneville) 'escapes from your lips, or the lips of your companions, I have, in my government of Scotland and Ireland, seven hundred and forty-one wooden gibbets, of strong oak, clamped with iron, and freshly greased every week. I will make a present of one of these gibbets to each of you, and observe well, M. d'Artagnan,' added he (observe it also, M. Menneville), 'I shall still have seven hundred and thirty left for my private pleasure. And still further--'”
”Ah! ah!” said the auxiliaries, ”is there still more?”
”A mere trifle. 'Monsieur d'Artagnan, I send to the king of France the treaty in question, with a request that he will cast into the Bastile provisionally, and then send to me, all who have taken part in this expedition; and that is a prayer with which the king will certainly comply.'”
A cry of terror broke from all corners of the table.