The Three Musketeers (The Modern Library) - Alexandre Dumas [81]
“Monsieur de Tréville has failed to mention an important fact, Sire,” the Cardinal commented drily. “One hour previously this innocent musketeer and paragon of gallantry, his sword in hand, struck down four commissioners who had been sent personally by myself to inquire into a matter of the highest importance.”
“I defy Your Eminence to prove that!” cried Monsieur de Tréville with typically Gascon frankness and soldierly bluntness. “Exactly one hour previously, Monsieur Athos—who, I may say confidentially, is a man of lofty rank—had just finished doing me the honor of dining at my board and was conversing in my drawing room with the Duc de La Trémouille, the Comte de Châlus and myself.”
The King glanced quizzically at the Cardinal.
“Official reports do not lie,” the Cardinal said meaningfully in reply to the King’s mute query. “The officers of the law who were molested drew up this official record which I have the honor to bring to Your Majesty’s attention.”
Tréville broke in: “Is the written testimony of a man of law to be compared to the word of honor of a soldier?”
“Come, come, Tréville, hush!”
But Tréville persisted:
“If His Eminence entertains the slightest suspicion against one of my musketeers, the justice of Monsieur le Cardinal is famed enough for me to demand an inquiry of my own.”
“If I am not mistaken,” the Cardinal observed impassively, “a Béarnais, a friend of this musketeer’s, lives in the house which my police raided.”
“Your Eminence means Monsieur d’Artagnan?”
“I mean a young man you have taken under your wing, Monsieur.”
“Yes, D’Artagnan, Your Eminence, precisely.”
“Do you not suspect this young man of giving bad counsel to—”
“To Monsieur Athos, a man double his age?” Monsieur de Tréville asked wonderingly; and, before the Cardinal could reply, “No, Monseigneur, I do not suspect anything of the kind. Besides, Monsieur d’Artagnan also spent the evening with me.”
“Well, well!” the Cardinal exclaimed. “Everybody seems to have spent the evening with you.”
“Does His Eminence venture to doubt my word?” Tréville asked hotly.
“Heaven forbid!” the Cardinal said piously. “But tell me, at what time was he at your house?”
“I can tell Your Eminence that quite positively. Just as he arrived I happened to notice that it was half-past eight by the clock though I had thought it was later.”
“And at what time did he leave your house?”
“At ten-thirty—an hour after the event.”
The Cardinal, who did not for a moment question Tréville’s integrity, felt victory slipping through his fingers. Here was a mystery he must solve. “After all, Monsieur,” he went on, “Athos was certainly picked up at the house in the Rue des Fossoyeurs.”
“Is one friend forbidden to visit another? Is a musketeer in my company forbidden to fraternize with a guardsman in Monsieur des Essart’s?”
“Yes, when they meet in a house that is suspect.”
“Quite so, Tréville,” the King remarked. “The house is under suspicion. Perhaps you did not know it?”
“Indeed, Sire, I did not. Of course some part of the house may bear investigation but not Monsieur d’Artagnan’s apartment. That, I can swear to! If I can believe what the young man says, Sire—and I do—Your Majesty has no more devoted servant and the Cardinal no more profound admirer.”
The King turned toward His Eminence and, with a suggestion of malice:
“Surely this must be the youth who wounded De Jussac in that unfortunate encounter near the convent of the Carmelites?”
The Cardinal blushed.
“Yes, Sire,” Tréville put in quickly. “And he wounded Bernajoux the day after. Your Majesty has an excellent memory!”
“Come, what shall we decide?” the King asked His Eminence.
“That concerns Your Majesty more than myself,” the Cardinal replied. “I maintain that he is guilty.”
“And I deny it!” Tréville retorted. “But His Majesty has judges and those judges will decide.”
“Agreed!” said the King. “Let us refer the matter to the judges. It is their business to judge and judge they shall!”
“And yet,” Tréville commented. “In these sorry times, it seems a pity that the