The Three Musketeers (The Modern Library) - Alexandre Dumas [10]
“Did you take his rags and kit up? Did he remove his doublet?”
“All his stuff is downstairs in the kitchen. But if this young fool annoys you—”
“He annoys me very much. He has caused an uproar in your hostelry, a thing which respectable people cannot abide. Go upstairs, man, make out my bill, and summon my lackey.”
“What! Is Monsieur leaving us already?”
“Of course. I told you to have my horse saddled. Have you done so?”
“Yes, indeed, Your Excellency. Your horse is ready—saddled for you to ride off.”
“Good! Now do as I told you.”
“Lord save us!” the host said. Examining the stranger: “Can he be afraid of this stripling?” he wondered.
An imperious look from the stranger sent him about his business and, bowing humbly, he withdrew.
“Milady must on no account be seen,” the stranger mused. “She will be passing through here soon, in fact she’s late already. I daresay I had better ride out to meet her. If only I knew what was in this letter to Tréville.” Mumbling to himself, he made off for the kitchen.
Meanwhile the host, certain that the youth’s presence had driven the stranger from his hostelry, ran upstairs to his wife’s room. There he found D’Artagnan who had at last come to. Suggesting that the police would handle the youth pretty roughly for having picked a quarrel with a great lord—for he had no doubt that the stranger could be nothing less—the host persuaded D’Artagnan, weak though he was, to get up and to be off.
D’Artagnan rose. He was still only half-conscious, he had lost his doublet, and his head was swathed in a linen cloth. Propelled by the innkeeper, he worked his way downstairs. But as he reached the kitchen, the first thing he saw was the stranger, standing at the step of a heavy carriage with two large Norman horses in harness.
He was chatting urbanely with a lady who leaned out of the window of the coach to listen. She must have been about twenty years of age. D’Artagnan was no fool; at a glance, he perceived that this woman was young and beautiful, her beauty the more striking because it differed so radically from that of the Midi, where he had always lived. She was pale and fair, with long curls falling in profusion over her shoulders; she had large blue, languishing eyes, rosy lips and hands of alabaster. She was talking vivaciously to the stranger.
“So His Eminence orders me—?”
“To return to England at once. Should the Duke leave London you are to report directly to His Eminence.”
“Any other instructions?” the fair traveler asked.
“They are in this box here. You are not to open it until you have crossed the Channel.”
“Very well! And you? What will you do?”
“I go back to Paris.”
“Without chastising this insolent youth?” the lady objected.
The stranger was about to reply. But before he could open his mouth, D’Artagnan, who had heard all, bounded across the doorsill.
“This insolent youth does his own chastising,” he cried, “and this time, I trust, chastisement will not escape him!”
“Will not escape him?” the stranger echoed, frowning.
“With a woman present, I dare hope you will not run away again.”
The stranger grasped the hilt of his sword. Milady, seeing this, cautioned:
“Remember that the least delay may ruin everything.”
“You are right, Milady. Let us go our several ways!”
Bowing to the lady, he sprang into his saddle. The coachman whipped up his horses and galloped off in one direction; the stranger was ready to gallop off in the other when suddenly the host appeared. Seeing his great lord about to disappear without settling his score, mine host’s affection yielded to the most profound contempt.
“What about my bill?” he shouted.
“Pay him, dolt!” said the stranger to his lackey, tossing a purse to him as they cantered off. The lackey checked his mount, flung three or four silver coins at the host’s feet, and sped after his master.
“Oh, you coward! you wretch! you bogus gentleman!” cried D’Artagnan, springing forward in turn after the lackey. But his wounds had left him too weak to bear the strain of such exertion. He had not taken ten steps before he