The Three Musketeers (The Modern Library) - Alexandre Dumas [33]
“God’s blood,” he cried to D’Artagnan, “don’t kill him, lad! I have an old bone to pick with him when I am fit again. Just disarm him, make sure of his sword. That’s it! Oh, well done, well done!”
Athos gave vent to the last exclamation as he saw Cahusac’s sword fly through the air and land twenty paces away. Both Cahusac and D’Artagnan leapt forward at the same time, the former to recover his weapon, the latter to capture it, but D’Artagnan, being more active, reached it first and placed his foot upon it.
Cahusac ran over to the guardsman whom Aramis had killed, seized his rapier and returned toward D’Artagnan. But on the way he met Athos, who had recovered his breath during the short respite D’Artagnan had afforded him and who wished to resume the fight lest D’Artagnan kill Cahusac. D’Artagnan realized that he would be disobliging Athos not to leave him alone, and, a few minutes later, Cahusac fell, pinked in the throat.
At the same instant Aramis placed his sword-point on the breast of his fallen adversary and forced him to beg for mercy. This left only Porthos and Bicarat to be accounted for. Porthos was indulging in all manner of braggadocio and swagger, asking Bicarat what time of day it might be and congratulating him on the fact that his brother had just obtained a company in the Regiment of Navarre. But, jest as he might, he was making no headway for Bicarat was one of those men of iron who never cry quits until they fall dead.
Meanwhile it was imperative to finish the fighting soon. There was danger of the watch coming by and picking up all the duelists, wounded or not, royalists or cardinalists. Athos, Aramis and D’Artagnan, surrounding Bicarat, called on him to surrender. Though one against four and wounded in the thigh, Bicarat was determined to hold out. Jussac, rising on his elbow, cried out to him to yield. But Bicarat, like D’Artagnan, was a Gascon; he turned a deaf ear and laughed as though it was all a huge joke. Between two parries he even found time to point with his sword at a patch of earth and, parodying a verse from the Bible, declare mock-heroically:
“Here shall Bicarat perish, alone of them which are beside him!”
“But they are four to one,” Jussac remonstrated. “Leave off, I command you.”
“Oh, if you command me, that’s another thing,” Bicarat agreed. “You are my superior officer, it is my duty to obey you.”
And, springing backward, he broke his sword across his knee to avoid having to surrender it, threw the two pieces over the convent wall, and crossed his arms, whistling a cardinalist air.
Bravery is always honored even in an enemy. The musketeers and D’Artagnan saluted Bicarat with their swords and returned them to their sheaths. Next, D’Artagnan, with the help of Bicarat, the only adversary still on his feet, carried Jussac, Cahusac and the guardsman Aramis had wounded, under the porch of the convent, leaving the dead man where he lay. Finally they rang the convent bell and, taking along four cardinalist swords as trophies of victory, they set out, wild with joy, for Monsieur de Tréville’s mansion.
Arm in arm, they strode, occupying the whole width of the street and, as every musketeer they met swelled their ranks, in the end their progress was a triumphal march. D’Artagnan was delirious with happiness as he marched between Athos and Porthos, squeezing their arms affectionately.
“If I’m not a musketeer yet,” he told his new-found friends as they swung through the gateway of the Hôtel de Tréville, “at least I’ve begun my apprenticeship, don’t you think?”
VI
HIS MAJESTY KING LOUIS THE THIRTEENTH
The affair caused a sensation. In public Monsieur de Tréville scolded them roundly but he congratulated them in private. Then, as no time must be lost in reaching the King and winning him over, he hastened to the Louvre. It was too late; His Majesty was already closeted with My Lord Cardinal and too busy, he was told, to receive him. That evening he went to the King’s gaming-table. His Majesty was winning, and, being very miserly, was in an excellent