The Three Musketeers (The Modern Library) - Alexandre Dumas [23]
“Yes, splendid.”
“Tall?”
“Ay.”
“Fair complexion? Brown hair?”
“Yes, Monsieur, that’s right, that’s the man! How do you know him so well? If ever I find him again—and I will find him, I swear, even in hell—”
“He was waiting for a lady?”
“Yes, and he left after talking to her for a few moments.”
“Do you happen to know what they talked about?”
“He gave her a box, told her it contained her instructions, and admonished her not to open it until she reached London.”
“Was this woman English?”
“He called her Milady.”
“It is he, it is he!” Tréville murmured. “I thought he was still at Brussels.”
“Oh, Monsieur, if you know who this man is, pray tell me who he is and where he comes from. This would be the greatest favor you could possibly do me. If you will, then I shall release you from all your promises, even that of helping me eventually to join the musketeers. The only thing I ask of life is to avenge myself!”
“Beware of trying any such thing, young man,” Tréville cautioned. “On the contrary, if you ever see him on one side of the street, make sure to cross to the other. Do not throw yourself against such a rock; it would smash you like glass.”
“That will not prevent me, if ever I meet him, from—”
Suddenly Tréville eyed D’Artagnan suspiciously. Treachery might well lurk behind the fierce hatred the young traveler professed for the man who had stolen his father’s letter—or so he said! Besides, this theft seemed an improbable thing at best. Might not His Eminence have sent this youth to set a trap for Tréville? Wasn’t this pretended D’Artagnan an emissary whom the Cardinal sought to introduce into Tréville’s household so that he might be close to him, win his confidence and then ruin him? The Cardinal had played this trick in a thousand other instances. Looking at D’Artagnan even more searchingly than before, Monsieur de Tréville was but moderately reassured by his expression, alive with astute intelligence and affected humility.
“I know he’s a Gascon,” he mused. “But he may be as much of a Gascon for Monseigneur Cardinal as he is for me. I shall test him.”
His eyes fixed upon D’Artagnan’s, he spoke slowly: “My boy, your father was my old friend and comrade. I believe this story of the lost letter to be perfectly true and I should like to dispel the impression of coldness you may have remarked in my welcome. Perhaps the best way to do so would be to discover to you, a novice as I once was myself, the secrets of our policy today.”
He then went on to explain to D’Artagnan how the King and the Cardinal were the best of friends; their apparent bickering was only a stratagem intended to deceive fools. Monsieur de Tréville was unwilling that a compatriot, a dashing cavalier and a youth of high mettle, should be duped by such artifices and fall into the snare, as so many others had done before him to their ruin. He assured D’Artagnan of his devotion to both these all-powerful masters; he insisted that his most earnest endeavor was to serve both the King and the Cardinal. His Eminence, he added, was one of the most illustrious geniuses France had ever produced.
“Now, young man, rule your conduct accordingly. If for family reasons or through your friends or through your own instincts, even, you entertain such enmity for the Cardinal as we are constantly discovering, then let us bid each other adieu. I will help you as much as I can but without attaching you to my person.”
There was a long pause.
“I hope my frankness will at least make you my friend,” Monsieur de Tréville said at last, “because you are the only young man to whom I have ever spoken like this.”
(Tréville was thinking: “The Cardinal knows how bitterly I loathe him. If he has set this young fox upon me, then he cannot have failed to indicate the best means of winning my favor. This spy, therefore, has been primed to rail at Richelieu for my benefit. If my suspicions are well-founded, my hypocritical protestations of loyalty to Richelieu should move this crafty youth to loose a torrent of abuse against His Eminence.” But Monsieur de Tréville’s calculations