The Three Musketeers (The Modern Library) - Alexandre Dumas [92]
“What? The matter that brings you here!” The haberdasher was wounded to the quick. “Are you not here to see a husband from whom you have been separated for a week?”
“Yes, that first! But there is also something else.”
“Speak out.”
“Something of the greatest interest . . . something on which our future fortunes depend. . . .”
“Our fortunes have changed considerably since I last saw you, Madame Bonacieux. In fact I should not be surprised if, sooner or later, our fortunes were to excite the envy of a great many people.”
“Indeed, yes! Especially if you follow the instructions I am about to give you.”
“Instructions? You—about to give me—”
“Yes, you. There is a good and holy deed to be done, Monsieur, and a great deal of money to be made into the bargain.”
Madame Bonacieux knew that by talking of money she was attacking his weakest spot. But a man (even a haberdasher) who has once spoken to Cardinal Richelieu (if only for ten minutes) is no longer the same man.
“A great deal of money to be made?” said Bonacieux, pursing his lips.
“Yes, a great deal.”
“How much, roughly?”
“About a thousand pistoles.”
“I see! Obviously what you are about to ask of me is very serious?”
“Ay!”
“What is to be done?”
“You must set out immediately. I shall give you a paper which you must not part with on any account whatever. You are to deliver that paper into the proper hands.”
“And where am I to go?”
“To London.”
“I go to London! Look here, you are joking! I have no business in London.”
“Others require that you go then.”
“Others? Who are those others? I warn you I will never again act without knowing what is what. I wish to know not only what risks I run but for whose sake.”
“An illustrious personage is sending you, an illustrious person awaits you. The reward will exceed your expectations, that I can promise you.”
“More intrigues, always intrigues!” Bonacieux grumbled. “Thank you, I have had my fill of them. His Eminence the Cardinal has enlightened me on that score!”
“The Cardinal? You saw the Cardinal?”
“He sent for me,” the haberdasher answered proudly.
“And you went? What rashness!”
“I must confess I had no choice one way or the other; I was marched off between two guards. I must also confess I did not know His Eminence—at that time.”
“So he ill-treated you? He threatened you?”
“He gave me his hand and called me his friend—his friend, do you understand, Madame? I am a friend of the great Cardinal.”
“Of the great Cardinal!”
“Do you perchance deny him that title, Madame?”
“I deny him nothing. But I tell you that the favor of a minister is ephemeral. A man must be mad to attach himself to a minister! There are powers superior to his which do not depend on the whim of an individual or the outcome of an event. It is around these powers that we should rally.”
“I am sorry, Madame, but I recognize no power other than that of the great man I serve.”
“You serve the Cardinal?”
“Ay, Madame, and as his servant, I will not permit you to participate in plots against the security of the State or to assist in the intrigues of an alien woman whose heart is devoted to Spain. Fortunately we have the great Cardinal: his watchful eye observes and penetrates to the bottom of the human heart.”
Bonacieux was repeating word for word a phrase which he had heard Comte de Rochefort utter. His poor wife, who had counted on her husband and vouched for him to the Queen, shuddered at the danger which she had so narrowly avoided and at her present helplessness. There was one consolation: she knew her husband’s weakness and more particularly his cupidity; therefore she did not despair of bringing him round to her purpose.
“So you are a cardinalist, Monsieur?” she exclaimed. “You serve the party who mistreat your wife and insult your Queen.”
“Private interests are of no import against the interest of all,” Bonacieux observed sententiously. “I am for those who support the State.”
This was another quotation from the Comte de Rochefort; he had committed it avidly to memory against such