Part 20 (2/2)
Baisemeaux and Athos saluted each other
”Surely you nan
”I have an indistinct recollection of Monsieur Baisemeaux,” said Athos
”You reuardss in the cardinal's ti leave of him with affability
”Monsieur le Couerre was Athos,” whispered D'Artagnan to Baisemeaux
”Yes, yes, a brave man, one of the celebrated four”
”Precisely so But, my dear Baisemeaux, shall we talk now?”
”If you please”
”In the first place, as for the orders-there are none The king does not intend to arrest the person in question
”So h
”What do you
”No doubt of it,” returned the governor, ” your pardon, I did not see it in that light”
”And so there are no orders,” repeated Baiseh ”What an admirable situation yours is, captain,” he continued, after a pause; ”captain-lieutenant of the h; but I don't see why you should envy overnor of the Bastile, the first castle in France”
”I am well aware of that,” said Baisemeaux, in a sorrowful tone of voice
”You say that like a e my profits for yours”
”Don't speak of profits to uish of mind”
”Why do you look first on one side and then on the other, as if you were afraid of being arrested yourself, you whose business it is to arrest others?”
”I was looking to see whether any one could see or listen to us; it would be safer to confer rant et we are acquaintances of five and thirty years' standing Don't assume such sanctified airs; overnors of the Bastile raw”
”Heaven be praised!”
”Coht; alk up and down, arm in arm, under the trees, while you tell overnor into the courtyard, took hiood-humored way, cried: ”Out with it, rattle away, Baise story”
”You prefer your own laer than ever I'll wager you are eons in the Bastile”
”Would to heaven that were the case, M d'Artagnan”
”You surprisethe anchorite I should like to show you your face in a glass, and you would see how plu you are, as fat and round as a cheese, with eyes like lighted coals; and if it were not for that ugly wrinkle you try to cultivate on your forehead, you would hardly look fifty years old, and you are sixty, if I am not mistaken”
”All quite true”
”Of course I kneas true, as true as the fifty thousand francs profit you round
”Well, well,” said D'Artagnan, ”I will add up your accounts for you: you were captain of M Mazarin's guards; and twelve thousand francs a year would in twelve years amount to one hundred and forty thousand francs”
”Twelve thousand francs! Are you ave me no more than six thousand, and the expenses of the post amounted to six thousand five hundred francs M Colbert, who deducted the other six thousand francs, condescended to allow ratification; so that, if it were not for s me in twelve thousand francs a year, I could not have ements”
”Well, then, how about the fifty thousand francs froed, and get your six thousand francs salary besides”
”Adood or bad, there are fifty prisoners, who, on the average, bring you in a thousand francs a year each”
”I don't deny it”
”Well, there is at once an income of fifty thousand francs; you have held the post three years, and must have received in that tiet one circunan”
”What is that?”
”That while you received your appointovernor froht, and Tre”
”Nor Louviere either: the result was, that I gave seventy-five thousand francs to Trereeable that! and to Louviere?”
”The very same”
”Money down?”
”No: that would have been i did not wish, or rather M Mazarin did not wish, to have the appearance of re from the barricades; he perant conditions for their retirement”