on horseback, feeling no inclination to dismount, and sat
looking at the bars, at the buttressed windows and the
immense walls he had hitherto only seen from the other side
of the moat, but by which he had for twenty years been
awe-struck.
A bell resounded.
"I must leave you," said Du Tremblay; "I am sent for to sign
the release of a prisoner. I shall be happy to meet you
again, sir."
"May the devil annihilate me if I return thy wish!" murmured
D'Artagnan, smiling as he pronounced the imprecation; "I
declare I feel quite ill after only being five minutes in
the courtyard. Go to! go to! I would rather die on straw
than hoard up a thousand a year by being governor of the
Bastile."
He had scarcely finished this soliloquy before the prisoner
arrived. On seeing him D'Artagnan could hardly suppress an
exclamation of surprise. The prisoner got into the carriage
without seeming to recognize the musketeer.
"Gentlemen," thus D'Artagnan addressed the four musketeers,
"I am ordered to exercise the greatest possible care in
guarding the prisoner, and since there are no locks to the
carriage, I shall sit beside him. Monsieur de Lillebonne,
lead my horse by the bridle, if you please." As he spoke he
dismounted, gave the bridle of his horse to the musketeer
and placing himself by the side of the prisoner said, in a
voice perfectly composed, "To the Palais Royal, at full
trot."
The carriage drove on and D'Artagnan, availing himself of
the darkness in the archway under which they were passing,
threw himself into the arms of the prisoner.
"Rochefort!" he exclaimed; "you! is it you, indeed? I am not
mistaken?"
"D'Artagnan!" cried Rochefort.
"Ah! my poor friend!" resumed D'Artagnan, "not having seen
you for four or five years I concluded you were dead."
"I'faith," said Rochefort, "there's no great difference, I
think, between a dead man and one who has been buried alive;
now I have been buried alive, or very nearly so."
"And for what crime are you imprisoned in the Bastile."
"Do you wish me to speak the truth?"
"Yes."
"Well, then, I don't know."
"Have you any suspicion of me, Rochefort?"
"No! on the honor of a gentleman; but I cannot be imprisoned
for the reason alleged; it is impossible."
"What reason?" asked D'Artagnan.
"For stealing."
"For stealing! you, Rochefort! you are laughing at me."
"I understand. You mean that this demands explanation, do
you not?"
"I admit it."
"Well, this is what actually took place: One evening after
an orgy in Reinard's apartment at the Tuileries with the Duc
d'Harcourt, Fontrailles, De Rieux and others, the Duc
d'Harcourt proposed that we should go and pull cloaks on the
Pont Neuf; that is, you know, a diversion which the Duc
d'Orleans made quite the fashion."
"Were you crazy, Rochefort? at your age!"
"No, I was drunk. And yet, since the amusement seemed to me
rather tame, I proposed to Chevalier de Rieux that we should
be spectators instead of actors, and, in order to see to
advantage, that we should mount the bronze horse. No sooner
said than done. Thanks to the spurs, which served as
stirrups, in a moment we were perched upon the croupe; we
were well placed and saw everything. Four or five cloaks had
already been lifted, with a dexterity without parallel, and
not one of the victims had dared to say a word, when some
fool of a fellow, less patient than the others, took it into
his head to cry out, `Guard!' and drew upon us a patrol of
archers. Duc d'Harcourt, Fontrailles, and the others
escaped; De Rieux was inclined to do likewise, but I told
him they wouldn't look for us where we were. He wouldn't
listen, put his foot on the spur to get down, the spur
broke, he fell with a broken leg, and, instead of keeping
quiet, took to crying out like a gallows-bird. I then was
ready to dismount, but it was too late; I descended into the
arms of the archers. They conducted me to the Chatelet,
where I slept soundly, being very sure that on the next day
I should go forth free. The next day came and passed, the
day after, a week; I then wrote to the cardinal. The same
day they came for me and took me to the Bastile. That was
five years ago. Do you believe it was because I committed
the sacrilege of mounting en croupe behind Henry IV.?"
"No; you are right, my dear Rochefort, it couldn't be for
that; but you will probably learn the reason soon."
"Ah, indeed! I forgot to ask you -- where are you taking
me?"
"To the cardinal."
"What does he want with me?"
"I do not know. I did not even know that you were the person
I was sent to fetch."
"Impossible -- you -- a favorite of the minister!"
"A favorite! no, indeed!" cried D'Artagnan. "Ah, my poor
friend! I am just as poor a Gascon as when I saw you at
Meung, twenty-two years ago, you know; alas!" and he
concluded his speech with a deep sigh.
"Nevertheless, you come as one in authority."
"Because I happened to be in the ante-chamber when the
cardinal called me, by the merest chance. I am still a
lieutenant in the musketeers and have been so these twenty
years."
"Then no misfortune has happened to you?"
"And what misfortune could happen to me? To quote some Latin
verses I have forgotten, or rather, never knew well, `the
thunderbolt never falls on the valleys,' and I am a valley,
dear Rochefort, -- one of the lowliest of the low."
"Then Mazarin is still Mazarin?"
"The same as ever, my friend; it is said that he is married
to the queen."
"Married?"
"If not her husband, he is unquestionably her lover."
"You surprise me. Rebuff Buckingham and consent to Mazarin!"
"Just like the women," replied D'Artagnan, coolly.
"Like women, not like queens."
"Egad! queens are the weakest of their sex, when it comes to
such things as these."
"And M. de Beaufort -- is he still in prison?"
"Yes. Why?"
"Oh, nothing, but that he might get me out of this, if he
were favorably inclined to me."
"You are probably nearer freedom than he is, so it will be
your business to get him out."
"And," said the prisoner, "what talk is there of war with
Spain?"
"With Spain, no," answered D'Artagnan; "but Paris."
"What do you mean?" cried Rochefort.
"Do you hear the guns, pray? The citizens are amusing
themselves in the meantime."
"And you -- do you really think that anything could be done
with these bourgeois?"
"Yes, they might do well if they had any leader to unite
them in one body."
"How miserable not to be free!"
"Don't be downcast. Since Mazarin has sent for you, it is
because he wants you. I congratulate you! Many a long year
has passed since any one has wanted to employ me; so you see
in what a situation I am."
"Make your complaints known; that's my advice."
"Listen, Rochefort; let us make a compact. We are friends,
are we not?"
"Egad! I bear the traces of our friendship -- three slits or
slashes from your sword."
"Well, if you should be restored to favor, don't forget me."
"On the honor of a Rochefort; but you must do the like for
me."
"There's my hand, -- I promise."
"Therefore, whenever you find any opportunity of saying
something in my behalf ---- "
"I shall say it, and you?"
"I shall do the same."
"Apropos, are we to speak of your friends also, Athos,
Porthos, and Aramis? or have you forgotten them?"
"Almost."
"What has become of them?"
"I don't know; we separated, as you know. They are alive,
that's all that I can say about them; from time to time I
hear of them indirectly, but in what part of the world they
are, devil take me if I know, No, on my honor, I have not a
friend in the world but you, Rochefort."
"And the illustrious -- what's the name of the lad whom I
made a sergeant in Piedmont's regiment?"
"Planchet!"
"The illustrious Planchet. What has become of him?"
"I shouldn't wonder if he were at the head of the mob at
this very moment. He married a woman who keeps a
confectioner's shop in the Rue des Lombards, for he's a lad
who was always fond of sweetmeats; he's now a citizen of
Paris. You'll see that that queer fellow will be a sheriff
before I shall be a captain."
"Come, dear D'Artagnan, look up a little! Courage! It is
when one is lowest on the wheel of fortune that the
merry-go-round wheels and rewards us. This evening your
destiny begins to change."
"Amen!" exclaimed D'Artagnan, stopping the carriage.
"What are you doing?" asked Rochefort.
"We are almost there and I want no one to see me getting out
of your carriage; we are supposed not to know each other."
"You are right. Adieu."
"Au revoir. Remember your promise."
In five minutes the party entered the courtyard and
D'Artagnan led the prisoner up the great staircase and
across the corridor and ante-chamber.
As they stopped at the door of the cardinal's study,
D'Artagnan was about to be announced when Rochefort slapped
him on his shoulder.
"D'Artagnan, let me confess to you what I've been thinking
about during the whole of my drive, as I looked out upon the
parties of citizens who perpetually crossed our path and
looked at you and your four men with fiery eyes."
"Speak out," answered D'Artagnan.
"I had only to cry out `Help!' for you and for your
companions to be cut to pieces, and then I should have been
free."
"Why didn't you do it?" asked the lieutenant.
"Come, come!" cried Rochefort. "Did we not swear friendship?
Ah! had any one but you been there, I don't say ---- "
D'Artagnan bowed. "Is it possible that Rochefort has become
a better man than I am?" he said to himself. And he caused
himself to be announced to the minister.
"Let M. de Rochefort enter," said Mazarin, eagerly, on
hearing their names pronounced; "and beg M. d'Artagnan to
wait; I shall have further need of him."
These words gave great joy to D'Artagnan. As he had said, it
had been a long time since any one had needed him; and that
demand for his services on the part of Mazarin seemed to him
an auspicious sign.
Rochefort, rendered suspicious and cautious by these words,
entered the apartment, where he found Mazarin sitting at the
table, dressed in his ordinary garb and as one of the
prelates of the Church, his costume being similar to that of
the abbes in that day, excepting that his scarf and
stockings were violet.
As the door was closed Rochefort cast a glance toward
Mazarin, which was answered by one, equally furtive, from
the minister.
There was little change in the cardinal; still dressed with
sedulous care, his hair well arranged and curled, his person
perfumed, he looked, owing to his extreme taste in dress,
only half his age. But Rochefort, who had passed five years
in prison, had become old in the lapse of a few years; the
dark locks of this estimable friend of the defunct Cardinal
Richelieu were now white; the deep bronze of his complexion
had been succeeded by a mortal pallor which betokened
debility. As he gazed at him Mazarin shook his head
slightly, as much as to say, "This is a man who does not
appear to me fit for much."
After a pause, which appeared an age to Rochefort, Mazarin
took from a bundle of papers a letter, and showing it to the
count, he said:
"I find here a letter in which you sue for liberty, Monsieur
de Rochefort. You are in prison, then?"
Rochefort trembled in every limb at this question. "But I
thought," he said, "that your eminence knew that
circumstance better than any one ---- "
"I? Oh no! There is a congestion of prisoners in the
Bastile, who were cooped up in the time of Monsieur de
Richelieu; I don't even know their names."
"Yes, but in regard to myself, my lord, it cannot be so, for
I was removed from the Chatelet to the Bastile owing to an
order from your eminence."
"You think you were."
"I am certain of it."
"Ah, stay! I fancy I remember it. Did you not once refuse to
undertake a journey to Brussels for the queen?"
"Ah! ah!" exclaimed Rochefort. "There is the true reason!
Idiot that I am, though I have been trying to find it out
for five years, I never found it out."
"But I do not say it was the cause of your imprisonment. I
merely ask you, did you not refuse to go to Brussels for the
queen, whilst you had consented to go there to do some
service for the late cardinal?"
"That is the very reason I refused to go back to Brussels. I
was there at a fearful moment. I was sent there to intercept
a correspondence between Chalais and the archduke, and even
then, when I was discovered I was nearly torn to pieces. How
could I, then, return to Brussels? I should injure the queen
instead of serving her."
"Well, since the best motives are liable to misconstruction,
the queen saw in your refusal nothing but a refusal -- a
distinct refusal she had also much to complain of you during
