The Three Musketeers (The Modern Library) - Alexandre Dumas [41]
In the King’s private antechamber, Monsieur de Tréville learned from La Chesnaye that they had not been able to reach Monsieur de La Trémouille at his mansion the night before, that he had returned too late to obey the summons, that he had only just arrived, and was even now closeted with His Majesty. The Captain of Musketeers was highly pleased at this news, for he could be certain that no foreign suggestion could insinuate itself between Monsieur de La Trémouille’s testimony and himself. In fact after some ten minutes, the door of the King’s closet opened and the Duc de La Trémouille came out.
“Monsieur de Tréville,” said the duke, “His Majesty has just sent for me to inquire into the circumstances of what happened yesterday morning at my mansion. I told the King the truth, namely that the fault lay with my people and that I was ready to apologize. Since I have the good fortune to meet you here, I beg you to forgive me and to consider me always your friend.”
“Monsieur le Duc,” Tréville replied, “I was so confident of your loyalty that I asked for no other defender before His Majesty. I see that I was not mistaken; I thank you. There is still one man in France who measures up to what I said of you.”
“Well spoken!” cried the King. “Since he claims to be a friend of yours, Tréville, tell him I should like to be a friend of his. But he neglects me. Why, it is nearly three years since I saw him last.”
“My thanks, Sire, my warmest thanks. Of course I do not refer to Monsieur de Tréville, but I beg Your Majesty to believe that those whom you see at all hours of the day are not your most devoted servants.”
“So, you heard what I said, Monsieur le Duc. So much the better, so much the better!” the King declared. “Well Tréville, where are your musketeers? I told you the day before yesterday to bring them along; why haven’t you done so, pray?”
“They are downstairs, Sire, and with your permission La Chesnaye will bid them come up.”
“Yes, let them come up immediately. It is almost eight o’clock and I expect another visitor at nine. Go, Monsieur le Duc, and please come back to see me occasionally. Come in, Tréville.”
The duke saluted and retired; as he opened the door, the three musketeers and D’Artagnan, escorted by La Chesnaye, appeared at the top of the staircase.
“Come in, my brave lads,” the King called. “Come in, I am going to scold you.”
The musketeers advanced bowing, D’Artagnan close behind them.
“What the devil!” the King exclaimed. “Seven of His Eminence’s Guards crushed by you four in two days! That’s too many, gentlemen, too many! If you go on at that rate, the Cardinal will have to recruit a new corps and I to apply the dueling edicts with utmost severity. One man, now and then, I don’t mind much; but seven in two days, I repeat, is too many, much too many.”
“As Your Majesty sees, my men have come, contrite and repentant, to make their apologies.”
“A fig for their contrition and repentance,” the King said. “I place no confidence in their hypocritical faces, particularly that Gascon face over there! Come here, Monsieur.”
D’Artagnan, aware that the compliment was addressed to him and assuming a most shamefaced air, came forward.
“Why, you told me he was a young man! This is a boy, Tréville, a mere boy! Do you mean to say it was he who dealt Jussac that master-stroke?”
“Yes, and he accounted for Bernajoux as well.”
“Indeed?”
“And besides this,” Athos put in, “had he not rescued me from Bicarat, I would certainly not have the honor of making my very humble obeisance to Your Majesty at this moment.”
“La, this lad from Béarn is a very devil! Ventre-Saint-Gris, as the King my father used to say! . . . I suppose this sort of work involves the slashing of many doublets and the breaking of many swords. And Gascons are always poor, are they not?”
“Sire, I can guarantee that they have not yet discovered any gold mines in their mountains. Yet God owes them this miracle as a reward for the way they championed the King, your father.”
“Which amounts to saying that the Gascons made a King of me too, for I am my father