Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas (books for 6 year olds to read themselves TXT) đ
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- Author: Alexandre Dumas
- Performer: 0192838431
Book online «Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas (books for 6 year olds to read themselves TXT) đ». Author Alexandre Dumas
âI do not drinkâ â Bazin pushed away with dignity the officerâs hand â ââtis good only for the laity.â
âIncorruptible!â murmured DâArtagnan; âI am unlucky;â and whilst he was lost in thought Bazin retreated toward the sacristy, and even there he could not think himself safe until he had shut and locked the door behind him.
DâArtagnan was still in deep thought when some one touched him on the shoulder. He turned and was about to utter an exclamation of surprise when the other made to him a sign of silence.
âYou here, Rochefort?â he said, in a low voice.
âHush!â returned Rochefort. âDid you know that I am at liberty?â
âI knew it from the fountainhead â from Planchet. And what brought you here?â
âI came to thank God for my happy deliverance,â said Rochefort.
âAnd nothing more? I suppose that is not all.â
âTo take my orders from the coadjutor and to see if we cannot wake up Mazarin a little.â
âA bad plan; youâll be shut up again in the Bastile.â
âOh, as to that, I shall take care, I assure you. The air, the fresh, free air is so good; besides,â and Rochefort drew a deep breath as he spoke, âI am going into the country to make a tour.â
âStop,â cried DâArtagnan; âI, too, am going.â
âAnd if I may without impertinence ask â where are you going?â
âTo seek my friends.â
âWhat friends?â
âThose that you asked about yesterday.â
âAthos, Porthos and Aramis â you are looking for them?â
âYes.â
âOn honor?â
âWhat, then, is there surprising in that?â
âNothing. Queer, though. And in whose behalf are you looking for them?â
âYou are in no doubt on that score.â
âThat is true.â
âUnfortunately, I have no idea where they are.â
âAnd you have no way to get news of them? Wait a week and I myself will give you some.â
âA week is too long. I must find them within three days.â
âThree days are a short time and France is large.â
âNo matter; you know the word must; with that word great things are done.â
âAnd when do you set out?â
âI am now on my road.â
âGood luck to you.â
âAnd to you â a good journey.â
âPerhaps we shall meet on our road.â
âThat is not probable.â
âWho knows? Chance is so capricious. Adieu, till we meet again! Apropos, should Mazarin speak to you about me, tell him that I should have requested you to acquaint him that in a short time he will see whether I am, as he says, too old for action.â
And Rochefort went away with one of those diabolical smiles which used formerly to make DâArtagnan shudder, but DâArtagnan could now see it without alarm, and smiling in his turn, with an expression of melancholy which the recollections called up by that smile could, perhaps, alone give to his countenance, he said:
âGo, demon, do what thou wilt! It matters little now to me. Thereâs no second Constance in the world.â
On his return to the cathedral, DâArtagnan saw Bazin, who was conversing with the sacristan. Bazin was making, with his spare little short arms, ridiculous gestures. DâArtagnan perceived that he was enforcing prudence with respect to himself.
DâArtagnan slipped out of the cathedral and placed himself in ambuscade at the corner of the Rue des Canettes; it was impossible that Bazin should go out of the cathedral without his seeing him.
In five minutes Bazin made his appearance, looking in every direction to see if he were observed, but he saw no one. Calmed by appearances he ventured to walk on through the Rue Notre Dame. Then DâArtagnan rushed out of his hiding place and arrived in time to see Bazin turn down the Rue de la Juiverie and enter, in the Rue de la Calandre, a respectable looking house; and this DâArtagnan felt no doubt was the habitation of the worthy beadle. Afraid of making any inquiries at this house, DâArtagnan entered a small tavern at the corner of the street and asked for a cup of hypocras. This beverage required a good half-hour to prepare. And DâArtagnan had time, therefore, to watch Bazin unsuspected.
He perceived in the tavern a pert boy between twelve and fifteen years of age whom he fancied he had seen not twenty minutes before under the guise of a chorister. He questioned him, and as the boy had no interest in deceiving, DâArtagnan learned that he exercised, from six oâclock in the morning until nine, the office of chorister, and from nine oâclock till midnight that of a waiter in the tavern.
Whilst he was talking to this lad a horse was brought to the door of Bazinâs house. It was saddled and bridled. Almost immediately Bazin came downstairs.
âLook!â said the boy, âthereâs our beadle, who is going a journey.â
âAnd where is he going?â asked DâArtagnan.
âForsooth, I donât know.â
âHalf a pistole if you can find out,â said DâArtagnan.
âFor me?â cried the boy, his eyes sparkling with joy, âif I can find out where Bazin is going? That is not difficult. You are not joking, are you?â
âNo, on the honor of an officer; there is the half-pistole;â and he showed him the seductive coin, but did not give it him.
âI shall ask him.â
âJust the very way not to know. Wait till he is set out and then, marry, come up, ask, and find out. The half-pistole is ready,â and he put it back again into his pocket.
âI understand,â said the child, with that jeering smile which marks especially the âgamin de Paris.â âWell, we must wait.â
They had not long to wait. Five minutes afterward Bazin set off on a full trot, urging on his horse by the blows of a parapluie, which he was in the habit of using instead of a riding whip.
Scarcely had he turned the corner of the Rue de la Juiverie when the boy rushed after him like a bloodhound on full scent.
Before ten minutes had elapsed the child returned.
âWell!â said DâArtagnan.
âWell!â answered the boy, âthe thing is done.â
âWhere is he gone?â
âThe half-pistole is for me?â
âDoubtless, answer me.â
âI want to see it. Give it me, that I may see it is not false.
âThere it is.â
The child put the piece of money into his pocket.
âAnd now, where is he gone?â inquired DâArtagnan.
âHe is gone to Noisy.â
âHow dost thou know?â
âAh, faith! there was no great cunning necessary. I knew the horse he rode; it belonged to the butcher, who lets it out now and then to M. Bazin. Now I thought that the butcher would not let his horse out like that without knowing where it was going. And he answered `that Monsieur Bazin went to Noisy.â âTis his custom. He goes two or three times a week.â
âDost thou know Noisy well?â
âI think so, truly; my nurse lives there.â
âIs there a convent at Noisy?â
âIsnât there a great and grand one â the convent of Jesuits?â
âWhat is thy name?â
âFriquet.â
DâArtagnan wrote the childâs name in his tablets.
âPlease, sir,â said the boy, âdo you think I can gain any more half-pistoles in any way?â
âPerhaps,â replied DâArtagnan.
And having got out all he wanted, he paid for the hypocras, which he did not drink, and went quickly back to the Rue Tiquetonne.
8How DâArtagnan, on going to a Distance to discover Aramis, discovers his old Friend on Horseback behind his own Planchet.
On entering the hotel DâArtagnan saw a man sitting in a corner by the fire. It was Planchet, but so completely transformed, thanks to the old clothes that the departing husband had left behind, that DâArtagnan himself could hardly recognize him. Madeleine introduced him in presence of all the servants. Planchet addressed the officer with a fine Flemish phrase; the officer replied in words that belonged to no language at all, and the bargain was concluded; Madeleineâs brother entered DâArtagnanâs service.
The plan adopted by DâArtagnan was soon perfected. He resolved not to reach Noisy in the day, for fear of being recognized; he had therefore plenty of time before him, for Noisy is only three or four leagues from Paris, on the road to Meaux.
He began his day by breakfasting substantially â a bad beginning when one wants to employ the head, but an excellent precaution when one wants to work the body; and about two oâclock he had his two horses saddled, and followed by Planchet he quitted Paris by the Barriere de la Villete. A most active search was still prosecuted in the house near the Hotel de la Chevrette for the discovery of Planchet.
At about a league and a half from the city, DâArtagnan, finding that in his impatience he had set out too soon, stopped to give the horses breathing time. The inn was full of disreputable looking people, who seemed as if they were on the point of commencing some nightly expedition. A man, wrapped in a cloak, appeared at the door, but seeing a stranger he beckoned to his companions, and two men who were drinking in the inn went out to speak to him.
DâArtagnan, on his side, went up to the landlady, praised her wine â which was a horrible production from the country of Montreuil â and heard from her that there were only two houses of importance in the village; one of these belonged to the Archbishop of Paris, and was at that time the abode of his niece the Duchess of Longueville; the other was a convent of Jesuits and was the property â a by no means unusual circumstance â of these worthy fathers.
At four oâclock DâArtagnan recommenced his journey. He proceeded slowly and in deep reverie. Planchet also was lost in thought, but the subject of their reflections was not the same.
One word which their landlady had pronounced had given a particular turn to DâArtagnanâs deliberations; this was the name of Madame de Longueville.
That name was indeed one to inspire imagination and produce thought. Madame de Longueville was one of the highest ladies in the realm; she was also one of the greatest beauties at court. She had formerly been suspected of an intimacy of too tender a nature with Coligny, who, for her sake, had been killed in a duel, in the Place Royale, by the Duc de Guise. She was now connected by bonds of a political nature with the Prince de Marsillac, the eldest son of the old Duc de Rochefoucauld, whom she was trying to inspire with an enmity toward the Duc de Conde, her brother-in-law, whom she now hated mortally.
DâArtagnan thought of all these matters. He remembered how at the Louvre he had often seen, as she passed by him in the full radiance of her dazzling charms, the beautiful Madame de Longueville. He thought of Aramis, who, without possessing any greater advantages than himself, had formerly been the lover of Madame de Chevreuse, who had been to a former court what Madame de Longueville was in that day; and he wondered how it was that there should be in the world people who succeed in every wish, some in ambition, others in love, whilst others, either from chance, or from ill-luck, or from some natural defect or impediment, remain half-way upon the road toward fulfilment of their hopes and expectations.
He was confessing to himself that he belonged to the latter unhappy class, when Planchet approached and said:
âI will lay a wager, your honor, that you and I are thinking of the same thing.â
âI doubt it, Planchet,â replied DâArtagnan, âbut what are you thinking of?â
âI am thinking, sir, of
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