The Three Musketeers (The Modern Library) - Alexandre Dumas [82]
“The Army will resent it, I am sure; are your soldiers varlets that the police may molest them for alleged misdemeanors?”
These words were deliberately insolent; Tréville hoped for an explosion. Does not a mine sprung burst afire and does not fire shed considerable light?
“Misdemeanors!” The King scowled. “Misdemeanors indeed! And what do you know about them, Monsieur? Stick to your musketeers and do not annoy us with such statements. To hear you speak, if by ill luck some musketeer should happen to be arrested, all France is in danger. Good heavens! What a pother about one musketeer! By God, I shall arrest ten of them, fifty, a hundred, the whole company without tolerating a whisper of comment.”
“So long as the musketeers are victims of your suspicion, Sire, the musketeers are guilty. Therefore, as Your Majesty sees, I am prepared to surrender my sword. Having accused my musketeers, the Cardinal will, I am sure, proceed to accuse me. Accordingly I prefer to constitute myself a prisoner with Monsieur Athos, who is already under arrest and with Monsieur d’Artagnan who doubtless soon will be.”
“You Gascon firebrand, will you have done?” said the King.
“Sire,” Tréville replied evenly, “pray order my musketeer to be returned to me or else to be tried by process of law.”
“He shall be tried,” said the Cardinal.
“So much the better then. I shall request His Majesty to allow me to plead in his behalf.”
The King, fearing a public scandal, suggested:
“If His Eminence had not certain personal motives . . . ?”
“Excuse me, Sire,” the Cardinal interrupted, forestalling what he knew the King was about to say. “The moment Your Majesty considers me prejudiced, I beg to withdraw.”
“Come now, Tréville,” the King urged, “will you swear by my father that Monsieur Athos was at your house during the event and that he had no hand in it?”
“By your glorious father and by yourself whom I love and revere above all else in the world, I swear it!”
“Pray reflect, Sire,” the Cardinal coaxed, “if we release the prisoner, we shall never discover the truth.”
“Monsieur Athos will be at hand,” Tréville retorted, “ready to testify whenever the gownsmen care to question him. He will not desert, Monsieur le Cardinal, rest assured of that. I will be personally answerable for him.”
“Of course he will not desert,” the King agreed, “and he can always be found, just as Monsieur de Tréville has said. Moreover—” here the King lowered his voice and glanced beseechingly at His Eminence, “let us give them apparent security. It is good policy to do so.”
This policy of Louis XIII made Richelieu smile.
“Order it as you will, Sire; you possess the right of pardon.”
“The right of pardon is applicable only to the guilty,” Tréville demurred, eager to have the last word, “and my musketeer is innocent. It is not an act of mercy you are about to perform, Sire, but an act of justice.”
“He is now at Fort L’Evêque?”
“Yes, Sire, held incommunicado, in solitary confinement, like the lowest of criminals.”
“The devil, the devil!” murmured the King. “What must we do?”
“Sign the order for his release, Sire. That will be the end of it,” the Cardinal proposed. “I believe with Your Majesty that Monsieur de Tréville’s guarantee is more than sufficient.”
Tréville bowed respectfully, with a joy not unmixed with fear; he would have preferred stubborn resistance on the part of the Cardinal to this sudden compliance. The King signed the order for release; Tréville accepted it with alacrity. Just as he was leaving, the Cardinal gave him a friendly smile and said to the King:
“A perfect harmony reigns between the Commanding Officer of Your Musketeers, Sire, and his soldiers. That is really very profitable for the service and reflects honor upon all concerned.”
Monsieur de Tréville was not fooled by these honeyed words. The Cardinal would play him some nasty trick or other, and in short order. Who had ever outwitted the Cardinal with impunity? The Captain of Musketeers realized he must make haste, too, for the King