The Three Musketeers (The Modern Library) - Alexandre Dumas [292]
But King Charles did not think of giving these orders until five hours after the murder of Buckingham. It was then two o’clock in the afternoon and two vessels had already made off. One of these bore Milady to France. Suspecting what had happened, she was confirmed in her belief as she sailed past the flagship of the fleet and saw a black ensign flying at the mast head. Of the second ship, more anon.
Meanwhile at the French camp outside La Rochelle things were at a standstill. King Louis XIII, bored as usual but perhaps even more so in camp than elsewhere, decided to go to Saint-Germain to celebrate the feast day of his patron saint. He therefore requested of the Cardi-nal an escort of musketeers—only twenty, since His Majesty was to travel incognito. His Eminence, often infected by the monarch’s te-dium, granted his royal lieutenant this leave of absence with the ut-most pleasure. The King promised to return about the fifteenth of September.
His Eminence notified Monsieur de Tréville who had his baggage immediately prepared. The Captain of musketeers was aware that our four friends, impelled by urgent reasons which he did not know, were most anxious to return to Paris. He therefore detailed them at once as part of the royal escort. Indeed they learned the great news only a quarter of an hour after Monsieur de Tréville himself, for they were the first to whom he imparted it. It was then that D’Artagnan appreciated to its full extent the favor the Cardinal had conferred on him by allowing him at long last to transfer to the musketeers. Otherwise he would have been forced to remain in camp whilst his companions sped joyfully back to Paris.
This impatience to return to the capital was of course dictated by thoughts of the danger Madame Bonacieux would run in meeting Milady, her mortal enemy, at the Convent of Béthune. Plans to avert this danger had long since been made and partially carried out. First Aramis had written to Madame Michon, the beautiful seamstress of Tours who had acquaintances in such high circles. Aramis asked that she obtain from the Queen authority for Madame Bonacieux to leave the convent and to retire either to Lorraine or to Belgium. The reply was very prompt; within ten days, Aramis received the following letter:
My dear Cousin:
Herewith is the authorization from my sister enabling our little servant to withdraw from the Convent of Béthune. I am sorry the air there, as you wrote, is so bad for her. My sister takes great pleasure in sending you this authorization, for she is very fond of the girl, whom she expects further to befriend hereafter.
My fondest love to you.
Marie Michon
The paper enclosed read as follows:
The Mother Superior of the Convent of Béthune is instructed to deliver into the hands of the bearer of this note, the novice who entered the convent on my recommendation and under my patronage.
Done by my hand at the Palace of the Louvre this tenth day of August in the year of Our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-eight.
Anne
Naturally the family ties between Aramis and a seamstress who called the Queen her sister amused the young men no end and aroused their barbed, their sharpest witticisms. But Aramis, having blushed several times to the roots of his hair at the ribald jests of Porthos, begged his friends to drop the subject. If he heard another word of this, he threatened, he would never again implore his cousin to intervene in an affair of this sort.
Marie Michon therefore ceased to be a theme of conversation between them. They had obtained what they wanted, namely, the order to remove Madame Bonacieux from the Carmelite Convent of Béthune. This order was of no great use to them so long as they were in camp near La Rochelle, with half of France between them and Madame Bonacieux.