The Three Musketeers (The Modern Library) - Alexandre Dumas [127]
“Planchet, my friend, you are worth your weight in gold!” D’Artagnan said, chuckling.
“Well, Monsieur, you see it’s like this . . . I thought that if you really did want to see Monsieur de Cavois, you could always put me in the wrong by saying you had not left. . . . In that case, I would be the one caught in a lie . . . but I’m no gentleman, Monsieur, so I can lie now and then and be damned to the consequences. . . .”
“No, no, Planchet, don’t worry: your reputation as a truthful man remains intact!” D’Artagnan smiled, then briskly: “We are leaving town in a quarter of an hour,” he announced.
“God bless me, I was on the point of giving Monsieur just that advice,” the lackey said, slapping his hip. “But without seeming too curious, might I ask Monsieur where we are off to?”
“You said I had gone to Champagne; we will therefore set off in the opposite direction. Remember, I should like to find out what has happened to Athos, Porthos and Aramis; and I am sure you would like news of Grimaud, Mousqueton and Bazin.”
“Of course, Monsieur, I am ready to leave at any moment. If I may say so, Monsieur, I think the air of the provinces will be a bit healthier for us in the next few days.”
“Right you are, Planchet, pack up and off we go! I shall leave the house casually, my hands in my pockets, so that nobody suspects anything. Meet me at the barracks.” D’Artagnan recalling Planchet’s misgivings the night before, added generously: “By the by, Planchet, you were certainly right about the landlord. That haberdasher seems to me to be one of the vilest specimens of humanity I have ever encountered.”
“Well, Monsieur, even if I say it who shouldn’t, I can tell a man’s nature by his face, ay, that I can. . . .”
D’Artagnan sauntered out, as arranged, and to make assurance doubly sure, visited the lodgings of his three friends. There were no tidings of them or messages anywhere, except that chez Aramis, D’Artagnan found a letter of signal calligraphy and balsam redolence. Arriving at the Hôtel des Grades before Planchet, D’Artagnan went to the stables and saddled his own horse. Ten minutes later his lackey arrived, bearing his portmanteau.
“Capital!” D’Artagnan exclaimed. “Now saddle the three other horses.”
“Does Monsieur think we shall travel faster with three extra horses?” Planchet’s expression was a picture of shrewdness.
“No, my witty friend,” D’Artagnan replied, “but if we have five horses the three musketeers can ride home, provided we find them alive.”
“I have my doubts, Monsieur, but God’s mercy is boundless!”
“Amen,” said D’Artagnan as he leaped into his saddle. And they parted at the gate of the Hôtel des Gardes, one to leave town by the Porte de La Villette, the other by the Porte de Montmartre, having arranged to meet beyond Saint-Denis, a piece of strategy which they punctually carried out with the most fortunate results. Together D’Artagnan and Planchet entered Pierrefitte.
Planchet was admittedly more daring in the daytime than after nightfall. But his native caution never forsook him an instant; having forgotten no incident of their first journey, he looked upon everyone they met on the road as an enemy. Accordingly he kept taking off his hat and holding it in his hand, at which D’Artagnan repeatedly reprimanded him with some asperity, for such excessive politeness might well cause Planchet to be taken as the lackey of a man of no consequence. At all events, whether the people they met were touched by Planchet’s urbanity or whether this time no one lay in ambush for them, the two travelers arrived at Chantilly without mishap and repaired to the inn of the Grand Saint-Martin, where they had put up on their previous journey.
The host, impressed by a client with three remounts, advanced respectfully to greet them on the threshold. As they had already traveled eleven leagues, D’Artagnan considered it advisable to stop awhile at the inn even though Porthos were not there; he also deemed it prudent not to ask at