The Three Musketeers (The Modern Library) - Alexandre Dumas [316]
“I request the penalty of death.”
“Lord Winter, what judgment is to be inflicted upon the accused?”
“On three counts, the sentence of death.”
Athos looked at Porthos and Aramis. “You two gentlemen are judges,” he stated. “What punishment do you please to impose upon this woman?”
“Death!” they answered in one voice.
Their stern, hollow tones rang through the room. Milady uttered a shriek, fell to her knees and crept, inch by inch, toward her accusers.
“Charlotte Backson, Comtesse de La Fère and Lady Clark—” Athos paused significantly, “your presence has too long importuned men on earth and offended God in his Heaven. Should you happen to know a Christian prayer, now is the time to say it. You are hereby sentenced to death for your crimes. May God have mercy upon your unfortunate soul.”
Aware that these words left her without hope of appeal, Milady rose to her feet and sought to speak. But her strength failed her. It was as though an implacable hand had seized her by the hair and must drag her as irrevocably to her doom as the hand of fate drags men whither it would have them go. Beyond all resistance, she merely bowed her head and left the cottage.
One by one, Lord Winter, D’Artagnan, Athos, Porthos and Aramis followed her out. The lackeys fell in behind their masters. The room was left empty, its window broken, its door wide open, and its smoky lamp burning dimly on the table.
LXVI
OF HOW JUDGMENT WAS ACCOMPLISHED
It was now almost midnight. The waning sickle-shaped moon rose ruddy and as though emblooded by the last vestiges of the storm. It soared slowly over the village of Armentières, its wan light etching the dark line of the houses and the silhouette of its tall belfry against a darkling background. The Lys rolled by like a river of molten lead. Beyond it, a black mass of trees standing out against an angry sky heavy with fat coppery clouds, re-created a sort of twilight amid the fulness of the night. To the left, from an old deserted mill, an owl hooted, strident, monotonous and at unfailing intervals. Here and there across the plain to the right and left of the road, a few squat and stunted trees stood like so many dwarfs (rising from what sinister cave?) to spy upon these men abroad at so unwonted an hour.
From time to time a broad, powerful sheet of lightning illumed the entire horizon, darting over the black leaves of the trees, slashing sky and stream asunder. No wisp of wind now freshened the oppressive atmosphere. A deathlike silence reigned over all nature. The ground was sodden and slippery with the recent rain. There was a cool redolence of grass.
Grimaud and Mousqueton led Milady forward, their hands pinned under her arms. The executioner followed hard by. Then respectively came Lord Winter, D’Artagnan, Athos, Porthos and Aramis. Planchet and Bazin brought up the rear.
Painfully Milady moved, or better, was moved toward the river. She did not say a word, but her eyes, extraordinarily brilliant, seemed to be pleading as she gazed in turn on each of her escort. As she and the valets gained some ground, she whispered:
“A thousand pistoles for each of you if you help me escape. But if you give me up to your master, I have friends who will make you pay dearly for my death.”
Grimaud hesitated; Mousqueton trembled. Athos, hearing Milady’s voice, ran up. “Planchet!” he called. “Bazin! Front and center!” And in an undertone to Lord Winter: “She has spoken to these two; they are no longer trustworthy.” Planchet and Bazin came up, Grimaud and Mousqueton fell behind.
When they reached the river bank, the executioner advanced to tie a cord about Milady’s hands and feet. She screamed:
“Cowards! You are all miserable cowards! Ten murderers against a defenseless woman! Shame upon you! If I am not saved, I shall be avenged.”
“You are no woman,” said Athos. “You do not belong to the human species, you are a demon from Hell and back to Hell you shall go.”
“Ha, gallant and virtuous gentlemen that you are, pray remember that whoever touches one hair of my head becomes a murderer too!”
“The public