Part 102 (1/2)
”What! will you--”
”This ring would certainly only recall very bitter remembrances; then we shall never be masters of three hundred pistoles to redeem it, so that we really should lose two hundred pistoles by the bargain. Go and tell him the ring is his, d'Artagnan, and bring back the two hundred pistoles with you.”
”Reflect, Athos!”
”Ready money is needful for the present time, and we must learn how to make sacrifices. Go, d'Artagnan, go; Grimaud will accompany you with his musketoon.”
A half hour afterward, d'Artagnan returned with the two thousand livres, and without having met with any accident.
It was thus Athos found at home resources which he did not expect.
39 A VISION
At four o'clock the four friends were all a.s.sembled with Athos. Their anxiety about their outfits had all disappeared, and each countenance only preserved the expression of its own secret disquiet--for behind all present happiness is concealed a fear for the future.
Suddenly Planchet entered, bringing two letters for d'Artagnan.
The one was a little billet, genteelly folded, with a pretty seal in green wax on which was impressed a dove bearing a green branch.
The other was a large square epistle, resplendent with the terrible arms of his Eminence the cardinal duke.
At the sight of the little letter the heart of d'Artagnan bounded, for he believed he recognized the handwriting, and although he had seen that writing but once, the memory of it remained at the bottom of his heart.
He therefore seized the little epistle, and opened it eagerly.
”Be,” said the letter, ”on Thursday next, at from six to seven o'clock in the evening, on the road to Chaillot, and look carefully into the carriages that pa.s.s; but if you have any consideration for your own life or that of those who love you, do not speak a single word, do not make a movement which may lead anyone to believe you have recognized her who exposes herself to everything for the sake of seeing you but for an instant.”
No signature.
”That's a snare,” said Athos; ”don't go, d'Artagnan.”
”And yet,” replied d'Artagnan, ”I think I recognize the writing.”
”It may be counterfeit,” said Athos. ”Between six and seven o'clock the road of Chaillot is quite deserted; you might as well go and ride in the forest of Bondy.”
”But suppose we all go,” said d'Artagnan; ”what the devil! They won't devour us all four, four lackeys, horses, arms, and all!”
”And besides, it will be a chance for displaying our new equipments,”
said Porthos.
”But if it is a woman who writes,” said Aramis, ”and that woman desires not to be seen, remember, you compromise her, d'Artagnan; which is not the part of a gentleman.”
”We will remain in the background,” said Porthos, ”and he will advance alone.”
”Yes; but a pistol shot is easily fired from a carriage which goes at a gallop.”
”Bah!” said d'Artagnan, ”they will miss me; if they fire we will ride after the carriage, and exterminate those who may be in it. They must be enemies.”