The Three Musketeers (The Modern Library) - Alexandre Dumas [160]
“True, true. I am really much too kind-hearted. Well, in brief, how much have you got?”
“Twenty-five pistoles.”
“Making, all told?”
“Four hundred and seventy-five livres,” D’Artagnan replied for, like Archimedes, he was a lightning calculator.
“When we get to Paris,” Porthos said cheerfully, “we shall still have four hundred, plus our saddles.”
“But what about our troop horses?” Aramis asked.
“Well, out of the four horses our lackeys own we can make two horses for the masters to ride and we can draw lots for who does so,” Athos suggested. “With the four hundred livres we now have, we can conjure up a half a horse for one of the two dismountees. Then by scraping the linings of our pockets we can hand D’Artagnan a tidy sum. He has a steady hand; we can go stake the money in the first gaming-house we find. And that is that!”
“Let us get on with our dinner,” Porthos urged. “The food is getting cold.”
Relieved of anxiety as to the future, the quartet fell to, doing ample justice to the repast; the remains were consigned to Messrs. Mousqueton, Bazin, Planchet and Grimaud.
In Paris D’Artagnan found a letter from Monsieur de Tréville advising him that upon his request the King had just granted him the high favor of transfer from the guards to the Royal Musketeers in the not too distant future. As this transfer fulfilled D’Artagnan’s most ambitious dream in life—except of course his desire to find Constance Bonacieux—he ran, filled with joy, to tell his friends the good news. He had left them but a half-hour before, cheerful as could be; he now found them dejected and apprehensive. They had repaired to the house of Athos, a fact which betrayed circumstances of considerable import.
Monsieur de Tréville had just notified them that His Majesty was definitely resolved to open the campaign on May the first and that they must immediately look to their equipment. The four philosophers gazed blankly at one another, stunned. Monsieur de Tréville never jested in matters of discipline.
“How much do you think your equipment will cost you?” D’Artagnan queried.
“There’s no telling,” Aramis answered ruefully. “We have just finished estimating the cost with the most strictly Spartan economy. So far each of us needs fifteen hundred livres.”
“Four times fifteen equals sixty,” said Athos. “Total: six thousand!”
“For my part,” said D’Artagnan, “it seems to me that with a thousand livres apiece . . . to be sure I am not speaking as a Spartan but as a pro-curer. . . .”
The word procurer roused Porthos from his trance. A procurer was not only a man who furnished things required, he was also a procureur, a procurator, a lawyer!
“Ha!” he cried. “That gives me an idea!”
“Congratulations,” Athos said breezily. “I confess I myself have not the shadow of the wraith of one.” He sighed. “As for D’Artagnan, gentlemen, his delight at becoming a musketeer has driven him quite insane. A thousand livres, forsooth! I warn you I need two thousand just for myself.”
“Four times two make eight,” said Aramis. “We need eight thousand livres for our horses. Of course we have our saddles.”
Athos waited until D’Artagnan, leaving to pay his visit of thanks to Monsieur de Tréville, had closed the door behind him.
Then confidentially:
“There is one thing you have forgotten, gentlemen,” he said.
“What?”
“What’s that, Athos?”
“Neither of you has mentioned the priceless diamond that sparkles whenever D’Artagnan raises his hand. Devil take it, D’Artagnan is too good a comrade to leave his brothers in want when he wears a king’s ransom on his ring-finger.”
XXIX
OF THE HUNT FOR CAMPAIGN OUTFITS
The most preoccupied of the four friends was certainly D’Artagnan, though as a guardsman he could be much more easily equipped than the musketeers who were all of high rank. But our Gascon cadet, as we have seen, was of a provident, almost avaricious nature and withal—who shall explain the paradox?—almost as vain as Porthos. For the moment beyond his vanity D’Artagnan was bestirred by a far more unselfish anxiety. Despite all his careful inquiries he had