The Three Musketeers (The Modern Library) - Alexandre Dumas [227]
“Farewell, viper,” he said. “I have at last drawn your teeth; bite me if you can.”
At the door, he found the two men Richelieu had appointed to escort Milady.
“Gentlemen,” he said, “you know the orders His Eminence gave you. You are to convey this woman forthwith to the Fort de La Pointe without leaving her out of your sight until she is safely embarked.”
As this agreed perfectly with their previous instructions, the pair bowed. Athos swung into his saddle and galloped down the road but when out of sight turned across country, pausing every now and then to listen. Presently he heard the sound of hoofs on the road and, certain it was the Cardinal and his escort, he wisped his horse down with heather and leaves and suddenly appeared on the highway two hundred yards from the camp.
“Who goes there?” he challenged as the horsemen advanced.
“That must be our gallant musketeer,” said the Cardinal.
“Ay, Monseigneur, at your service.”
“Monsieur Athos, my thanks for your assuring my security,” the Cardinal said. “And thank you, too, gentlemen,” he said to the others. “We are home safe and sound. Take the gate on the left, my friends. The password is Roi et Rè. Goodnight and thanks again.”
His Eminence was no sooner out of earshot than Porthos inquired:
“The Cardinal signed her paper, eh?”
And Aramis:
“What happened?”
“I have the paper,” Athos told them. His taciturnity prevailed upon them; no word was exchanged save the watchword as the three friends were challenged by sentries. Reaching their quarters, they dispatched Mousqueton with orders to invite D’Artagnan to call on them next day.
Meanwhile, as Athos had foreseen, Milady found her escort and made no difficulty in following. For an instant she had felt inclined to ask to be conducted back to the Cardinal and to report all that had happened. But she quickly realized that any revelation on her part would bring about a revelation on the part of Athos. She might tell how Athos had hanged her but then he would tell that she was branded. It was best to preserve silence, she decided, to set off discreetly, to accomplish her difficult mission with her usual skill and then, when all had been done to the Cardinal’s satisfaction, to go back to him and claim her vengeance.
After traveling all night she reached the Port de La Pointe at seven o’clock; by eight she had embarked, and at nine the vessel (which bore letters of marque from the Cardinal and was supposedly sailing for Bayonne) quietly raised anchor and steered its course toward the English coast.
XLVI
THE BASTION SAINT-GERVAIS
On arriving at the lodgings of his three friends, D’Artagnan found them together in the same room; Athos was meditating, Porthos was curling his mustache and Aramis was reading his prayers out of an attractive little Book of Hours, bound in blue velvet.
“Pardieu, gentlemen!” cried D’Artagnan. “I hope what you have to tell me is worth the telling. Otherwise I warn you I shan’t forgive you for summoning me here when I might be getting a little rest after a night spent in capturing and dismantling a bastion. Oh, if only you had been there, gentlemen; I had a hot time of it!”
“We were somewhere else,” said Porthos, twirling his mustache with a characteristic flourish. “And the temperature was far from cool.”
“Quiet!” Athos admonished, frowning slightly.
“Well, well,” D’Artagnan exclaimed, understanding the musketeer’s reaction. “Apparently there is something new afoot.”
Athos turned to Aramis.
“The day before yesterday, Aramis, you breakfasted at the Sign of the Heretic, did you not?”
“Certainly.”
“Is it any good?”
“For my part, I fared poorly. It was a day of fasting and they had nothing but meat.”
“What?” Athos asked, incredulous. “No fish at a seaport?”
“They say,” Aramis explained as he returned to his pious reading, “that the dike the Cardinal is building has driven all the fish out to sea.”
“That is not what I asked you,” Athos objected. “I want to know if you were left alone and if no one bothered you.”
“Come to think of it, there were not too many intruders. Indeed,