ridiculous piece of silliness in you to allow yourself to be
controlled by Aramis, whose cunning you know -- a cunning
which, we may say between ourselves, is not always without
egotism; or by Athos, a noble and disinterested man, but
blase, who, desiring nothing further for himself, doesn't
sympathize with the desires of others. What should you say
if either of these two friends proposed to you to let
Mazarin go?"
"Why, I should say that we had too much trouble in taking
him to let him off so easily."
"Bravo, Porthos! and you would be right, my friend; for in
losing him you would lose your barony, which you have in
your grasp, to say nothing of the fact that, were he once
out of this, Mazarin would have you hanged."
"Do you think so?"
"I am sure of it."
"Then I would kill him rather than let him go."
"And you would act rightly. There is no question, you
understand, provided we secure our own interests, of
securing those of the Frondeurs; who, besides, don't
understand political matters as we old soldiers do."
"Never fear, dear friend," said Porthos. "I shall see you
through the window as you mount your horse; I shall follow
you with my eyes as long as you are in sight; then I shall
place myself at the cardinal's door -- a door with glass
windows. I shall see everything, and at the least suspicious
sign I shall begin to exterminate."
"Bravo!" thought D'Artagnan; "on this side I think the
cardinal will be well guarded." He pressed the hand of the
lord of Pierrefonds and went in search of Athos.
"My dear Athos," he said, "I am going away. I have only one
thing to say to you. You know Anne of Austria; the captivity
of Mazarin alone guarantees my life; if you let him go I am
a dead man."
"I needed nothing less than that consideration, my dear
D'Artagnan, to persuade myself to adopt the role of jailer.
I give you my word that you will find the cardinal where you
leave him."
"This reassures me more than all the royal signatures,"
thought D'Artagnan. "Now that I have the word of Athos I can
set out."
D'Artagnan started alone on his journey, without other
escort than his sword, and with a simple passport from
Mazarin to secure his admission to the queen's presence. Six
hours after he left Pierrefonds he was at Saint Germain.
The disappearance of Mazarin was not as yet generally known.
Anne of Austria was informed of it and concealed her
uneasiness from every one. In the chamber of D'Artagnan and
Porthos the two soldiers had been found bound and gagged. On
recovering the use of their limbs and tongues they could, of
course, tell nothing but what they knew -- that they had
been seized, stripped and bound. But as to what had been
done by Porthos and D'Artagnan afterward they were as
ignorant as all the inhabitants of the chateau.
Bernouin alone knew a little more than the others. Bernouin,
seeing that his master did not return and hearing the stroke
of midnight, had made an examination of the orangery. The
first door, barricaded with furniture, had aroused in him
certain suspicions, but without communicating his suspicions
to any one he had patiently worked his way into the midst of
all that confusion. Then he came to the corridor, all the
doors of which he found open; so, too, was the door of
Athos's chamber and that of the park. From the latter point
it was easy to follow tracks on the snow. He saw that these
tracks tended toward the wall; on the other side he found
similar tracks, then footprints of horses and then signs of
a troop of cavalry which had moved away in the direction of
Enghien. He could no longer cherish any doubt that the
cardinal had been carried off by the three prisoners, since
the prisoners had disappeared at the same time; and he had
hastened to Saint Germain to warn the queen of that
disappearance.
Anne had enforced the utmost secrecy and had disclosed the
event to no one except the Prince de Conde, who had sent
five or six hundred horsemen into the environs of Saint
Germain with orders to bring in any suspicious person who
was going away from Rueil, in whatsoever direction it might
be.
Now, since D'Artagnan did not constitute a body of horsemen,
since he was alone, since he was not going away from Rueil
and was going to Saint Germain, no one paid any attention to
him and his journey was not obstructed in any way.
On entering the courtyard of the old chateau the first
person seen by our ambassador was Maitre Bernouin in person,
who, standing on the threshold, awaited news of his vanished
master.
At the sight of D'Artagnan, who entered the courtyard on
horseback, Bernouin rubbed his eyes and thought he must be
mistaken. But D'Artagnan made a friendly sign to him with
his head, dismounted, and throwing his bridle to a lackey
who was passing, he approached the valet-de-chambre with a
smile on his lips.
"Monsieur d'Artagnan!" cried the latter, like a man who has
the nightmare and talks in his sleep, "Monsieur d'Artagnan!"
"Himself, Monsieur Bernouin."
"And why have you come here?"
"To bring news of Monsieur de Mazarin -- the freshest news
there is."
"What has become of him, then?"
"He is as well as you and I."
"Nothing bad has happened to him, then?"
"Absolutely nothing. He felt the need of making a trip in
the Ile de France, and begged us -- the Comte de la Fere and
Monsieur du Vallon -- to accompany him. We were too devoted
servants to refuse him a request of that sort. We set out
last evening and here we are."
"Here you are."
"His eminence had something to communicate to her majesty,
something secret and private -- a mission that could be
confided only to a sure man -- and so has sent me to Saint
Germain. And therefore, my dear Monsieur Bernouin, if you
wish to do what will be pleasing to your master, announce to
her majesty that I have come, and tell her with what
purpose."
Whether he spoke seriously or in jest, since it was evident
that under existing circumstances D'Artagnan was the only
man who could relieve the queen's uneasiness, Bernouin went
without hesitation to announce to her this strange embassy;
and as he had foreseen, the queen gave orders to introduce
Monsieur d'Artagnan at once.
D'Artagnan approached the sovereign with every mark of
profound respect, and having fallen on his knees presented
to her the cardinal's letter
It was, however, merely a letter of introduction. The queen
read it, recognized the writing, and, since there were no
details in it of what had occurred, asked for particulars.
D'Artagnan related everything with that simple and ingenuous
air which he knew how to assume on occasions. The queen, as
he went on, looked at him with increasing astonishment. She
could not comprehend how a man could conceive such an
enterprise and still less how he could have the audacity to
disclose it to her whose interest and almost duty it was to
punish him.
"How, sir!" she cried, as D'Artagnan finished, "you dare to
tell me the details of your crime -- to give me an account
of your treason!"
"Pardon, madame, but I think that either I have expressed
myself badly or your majesty has imperfectly understood me.
There is here no question of crime or treason. Monsieur de
Mazarin held us in prison, Monsieur du Vallon and myself,
because we could not believe that he had sent us to England
to quietly look on while they cut off the head of Charles
I., brother-in-law of the late king, your husband, the
consort of Madame Henrietta, your sister and your guest, and
because we did all that we could do to save the life of the
royal martyr. We were then convinced, my friend and I, that
there was some error of which we were the victims, and that
an explanation was called for between his eminence and
ourselves. Now, that an explanation may bear fruit, it is
necessary that it should be quietly conducted, far from
noise and interruption. We have therefore taken away
monsieur le cardinal to my friend's chateau and there we
have come to an understanding. Well, madame, it proved to be
as we had supposed; there was a mistake. Monsieur de Mazarin
had thought that we had rendered service to General
Cromwell, instead of King Charles, which would have been a
disgrace, rebounding from us to him, and from him to your
majesty -- a dishonor which would have tainted the royalty
of your illustrious son. We were able to prove the contrary,
and that proof we are ready to give to your majesty, calling
in support of it the august widow weeping in the Louvre,
where your royal munificence has provided for her a home.
That proof satisfied him so completely that, as a sign of
satisfaction, he has sent me, as your majesty may see, to
consider with you what reparation should be made to
gentlemen unjustly treated and wrongfully persecuted."
"I listen to you, and I wonder at you, sir," said the queen.
"In fact, I have rarely seen such excess of impudence."
"Your majesty, on your side," said D'Artagnan, "is as much
mistaken as to our intentions as the Cardinal Mazarin has
always been."
"You are in error, sir," answered the queen. "I am so little
mistaken that in ten minutes you shall be arrested, and in
an hour I shall set off at the head of my army to release my
minister."
"I am sure your majesty will not commit such an act of
imprudence, first, because it would be useless and would
produce the most disastrous results. Before he could be
possibly set free the cardinal would be dead; and indeed, so
convinced is he of this, that he entreated me, should I find
your majesty disposed to act in this way, to do all I could
to induce you to change your resolution."
"Well, then, I will content myself with arresting you!"
"Madame, the possibility of my arrest has been foreseen, and
should I not have returned by to-morrow, at a certain hour
the next day the cardinal will be brought to Paris and
delivered to the parliament."
"It is evident, sir, that your position has kept you out of
relation to men and affairs; otherwise you would know that
since we left Paris monsieur le cardinal has returned
thither five or six times; that he has there met De
Beaufort, De Bouillon, the coadjutor and D'Elbeuf and that
not one of them had any desire to arrest him."
"Your pardon, madame, I know all that. And therefore my
friends will conduct monsieur le cardinal neither to De
Beaufort, nor to De Bouillon, nor to the coadjutor, nor to
D'Elbeuf. These gentlemen wage war on private account, and
in buying them up, by granting them what they wished,
monsieur le cardinal has made a good bargain. He will be
delivered to the parliament, members of which can, of
course, be bought, but even Monsieur de Mazarin is not rich
enough to buy the whole body."
"I think," returned Anne of Austria, fixing upon him a
glance, which in any woman's face would have expressed
disdain, but in a queen's, spread terror to those she looked
upon, "nay, I perceive you dare to threaten the mother of
your sovereign."
"Madame," replied D'Artagnan, "I threaten simply and solely
because I am obliged to do so. Believe me, madame, as true a
thing as it is that a heart beats in this bosom -- a heart
devoted to you -- believe that you have been the idol of our
lives; that we have, as you well know -- good Heaven! --
risked our lives twenty times for your majesty. Have you,
then, madame, no compassion for your servants who for twenty
years have vegetated in obscurity, without betraying in a
single sigh the solemn and sacred secrets they have had the
honor to share with you? Look at me, madame -- at me, whom
you accuse of speaking loud and threateningly. What am I? A
poor officer, without fortune, without protection, without a
future, unless the eye of my queen, which I have sought so
long, rests on me for a moment. Look at the Comte de la
Fere, a type of nobility, a flower of chivalry. He has taken
part against his queen, or rather, against her minister. He
has not been unreasonably exacting, it seems to me. Look at
Monsieur du Vallon, that faithful soul, that arm of steel,
who for twenty years has awaited the word from your lips
which will make him in rank what he is in sentiment and in
courage. Consider, in short, your people who love you and
who yet are famished, who have no other wish than to bless
you, and who, nevertheless -- no, I am wrong, your subjects,
madame, will never curse you; say one word to them and all
will be ended -- peace succeed war, joy tears, and happiness
to misfortune!"
Anne of Austria looked with wonderment on the warlike
countenance of D'Artagnan, which betrayed a singular
expression of deep feeling.
"Why did you not say all this before you took action, sir?"
she said.
"Because, madame, it was necessary to prove to your majesty
one thing of which you doubted ---that is, that we still
possess amongst us some valor and are worthy of some
consideration at your hands."
"And that valor would shrink from no undertaking, according
to what I see."
"It has hesitated at nothing in the past; why, then, should
it be less daring in the future?"
"Then, in case of my refusal, this valor, should a struggle
occur, will even go the length of carrying me off in the
midst of my court, to deliver me into the hands of the
Fronde, as you propose to deliver my minister?"
"We have not thought about it yet, madame," answered
D'Artagnan, with that Gascon effrontery which had in him the
