The Three Musketeers (The Modern Library) - Alexandre Dumas [301]
“If I permit? I beseech you to do so.”
The Superior and Madame Bonacieux retired; Milady, alone, drew herself up and stared at the door. An instant later the jangling of spurs resounding on the staircase . . . the sound of footsteps drew near . . . the door opened . . . a man stood on the threshold. . . .
Milady uttered a cry of joy. It was the Comte de Rochefort, the âme damnée, the demoniacal tool of His Eminence the Cardinal.
LXII
OF TWO VARIETIES OF DEMONS
“You, Chevalier!” Milady cried in surprise.
“You, Milady!” Rochefort cried with like incredulity.
“You come from where, Chevalier?”
“From La Rochelle, Milady. And you?”
“From England!”
“What of Buckingham?”
“Buckingham is either dead or desperately wounded. Just as I left without having been able to obtain anything from him, I heard that some fanatic had stabbed him.”
“What a piece of luck!” Rochefort smiled. “His Eminence will be delighted. Did you inform him of it?”
“I wrote him from Boulogne. But what brings you here?”
“His Eminence was worried and sent me in search of you.”
“I arrived only yesterday.”
“And what have you been doing since yesterday?”
“I have not wasted my time.”
“Oh, I am sure of that!”
“Do you know whom I met here?”
“No.”
“Guess?”
“How can I—?”
“The young woman the Queen freed from prison.”
“The mistress of young D’Artagnan?”
“Yes . . . Madame Bonacieux . . . even the Cardinal did not know where she was hidden. . . .”
“Upon my word, this piece of luck matches your news of Buckingham. His Eminence is indeed a fortunate man, Milady.”
“I leave you to imagine how amazed I was to find myself face to face with the woman.”
“Does she know you?”
“No, she does not!”
“She looks upon you as a stranger, then?”
Milady smiled enigmatically and: “I am her best friend!” she explained coolly.
“Upon my honor, only yourself, dear Milady, can perform such miracles!”
“Little good it does me, Chevalier.”
“Pray why?”
“You don’t know what is happening?”
“No, Madame.”
“Tomorrow or the day after, this woman is being withdrawn from the convent on orders from the Queen.”
“How and by whom?”
“By D’Artagnan and his friends.”
“Honestly, those fellows will go so far one of these days that we shall have no choice but to clap them into the Bastille.”
“What are you waiting for?”
“The Cardinal seems to entertain a certain weakness or laxity in regard to these four men. I scarcely know why.”
“Well, tell him this, Rochefort, from me. Listen carefully. Those same four men overheard the conversation His Eminence and I held at the Sign of the Red Dovecote . . . after the Cardinal’s departure, one of them broke into my room . . . the fellow abused me and seized the safe-conduct His Eminence had given me . . . the four of them warned Lord Winter of my journey to England . . . once again, they almost foiled my mission, just as they had in the affair of the diamond studs. . . .”
Rochefort asked: “But how—?”
“Tell His Eminence that of the four, two only are dangerous: D’Artagnan and Athos . . . that the third, Aramis by name, happens to be the lover of Madame de Chevreuse and therefore, since we know his secret he should be spared, for he may well come in useful . . . and the fourth, a fellow called Porthos, is a fool, an oaf, a fathead and a blusterer beneath the notice of anyone. . . .”
“But these four men must surely be at the siege of La Rochelle?”
“That is what I thought, too. Meanwhile Madame Bonacieux was rash enough to show me a letter from Madame la Connétable. The text leads me to believe that all four are on their way here to remove her from this convent.”
“Devil take it! What are we to do?”
“What did the Cardinal say about me?”
“He ordered me to ask you to communicate to me any orders you have—written or verbal—and to return post-haste. As soon as he learns what you have done, he will consider what you are to do hereafter.”
“So I am to stay here?”
“Here or in the neighborhood.”
“Can you not take me with you?”
“No, Milady, my orders are imperative. Near the camp you might well be recognized and your