Part 90 (1/2)
And the duke, pointing his pistol at Aramis, fired But Araer press the trigger and the ball passed without touching him
”Oh! you've missed me,” cried Aramis, ”but I swear to Heaven! I will not ive you ti upon him with his draord
Aramis awaited him with that terrible smile which was peculiar to hi toward Ara to cry out, ”Fire! fire, then!” when the shot was fired De Chatillon opened his arms and fell back on the crupper of his horse
The ball had entered his breast through a notch in the cuirass
”I around
”I told you this, I arieved I have kept my word Can I be of any use to you?”
Chatillon n with his hand and Aramis was about to dismount when he received a violent shock; 'twas a thrust from a sword, but his cuirass turned aside the blow
He turned around and seized his new antagonist by the wrist, when he started back, exclai nized at the same instant the voices of his father and the Chevalier d'Herblay; two officers in the Parisian forces rushed at that instant on Raoul, but Aramis protected him with his sword
”My prisoner!” he cried
Athos took his son's horse by the bridle and led him forth out of the melee
At this crisis of the battle, the prince, who had been seconding De Chatillon in the second line, appeared in the le eye made hi hiiment of Corinth, which the coadjutor had not been able to reorganize in spite of all his efforts, threw itself into the midst of the Parisian forces, put the The coadjutor, dragged along with his fugitive forces, passed near the group formed by Athos, Raoul and Ara pleased at the coadjutor's misfortune, and was about to utter some bon mot more witty than correct, when Athos stopped him
”On, on!” he cried, ”this is no moment for compliments; or rather, back, for the battle seems to be lost by the Frondeurs”
”It is a matter of indifference to me,” said Aramis; ”I came here only to meet De Chatillon; I haveto have met De Chatillon in a duel!”
”And besides, we have a prisoner,” said Athos, pointing to Raoul
The three cavaliers continued their road on full gallop
”What were you doing in the battle, ht place, I think, as you were not equipped for an engage to-day, sir; I was charged, indeed, with a mission to the cardinal and had set out for Rueil, when, seeing Monsieur de Chatillon charge, an invincible desire possessed e at his side It was then that he toldme and named the Comte de la Fere”
”What! you kneere there and yet wished to kill your friend the chevalier?”
”I did not recognize the chevalier in arht have known hier”
”Thank you for the co friend,” replied Aramis, ”we can see fro to Rueil?”
”Yes! I have a despatch from the prince to his eminence”
”You enerosity, count! the fate of our friends, to say nothing of our own, is perhaps in that very despatch”
”This young man must not, however, fail in his duty,” said Athos
”In the first place, count, this youth is our prisoner; you seeet that What I propose to do is fair in war; the vanquished must not be dainty in the choice ofto read in his eyes a rule of conduct
”Give him the despatch, Raoul! you are the chevalier's prisoner”
Raoul gave it up reluctantly; Aramis instantly seized and read it
”You,” he said, ”you, who are so trusting, read and reflect that there is so in this letter i, but an idea that he should find sonan conquered his unwillingness to read it
”My lord, I shall send this evening to your ees, the ten ood soldiers, fit to confront the two violent adversaries whose address and resolution your eminence is fearful of”
”Oh!” cried Athos
”Well,” said Aramis, ”what think you about these two eneood soldiers to confront; are they not as like as two drops of water to D'Artagnan and Porthos?”
”We'll search Paris all day long,” said Athos, ”and if we have no news this evening ill return to the road to Picardy; and I feel no doubt that, thanks to D'Artagnan's ready invention, we shall then find some clehich will solve our doubts”
”Yes, let us search Paris and especially inquire of Planchet if he has yet heard from his former master”
”That poor Planchet! You speak of him very much at your ease, Ara citizens went out to battle and they have been massacred”
It was, then, with a sentiive them information, was alive or dead, that the friends returned to the Place Royale; to their great surprise they found the citizens still encah, doubtless, ht they were at Charenton in the thickest of the fighting
Athos and Ara of D'Artagnan; they wished to take Planchet with them, but he could not leave his troop, who at five o'clock returned ho froht of the bronze equestrian statue of Louis XIII
79 The Road to Picardy
On leaving Paris, Athos and Araer; but we know that for er Besides, they felt that the denouement of this second Odyssey was at hand and that there rele effort to make
Besides, there was no tranquillity in Paris itself Provisions began to fail, and whenever one of the Prince de Conti's generals wished to gain ot up a little popular tuained a superiority over his colleagues