The Three Musketeers (Translated by Richard Pevear) - Alexandre Dumas [112]
“Eight days, Milord.”
“I will pay three thousand pistoles apiece for them; I need them by the day after tomorrow.”
“Milord will have them.”
“You are a precious man, Mr. O’Reilly, but that’s not all: these pendants cannot be entrusted to anybody; they must be made in this palace.”
“Impossible, Milord. I am the only one who can make them so that no difference will be seen between the new ones and the old ones.”
“And so, my dear Mr. O’Reilly, you are my prisoner, and if you should try to leave my palace right now, you would be unable to do so. Make your choice, then. Give me the names of the assistants you will need, and tell me what tools they should bring.”
The goldsmith knew the duke, he knew that any remarks would be useless, and so he made his choice that same instant.
“Will I be permitted to inform my wife?” he asked.
“Oh, you will even be permitted to see her, my dear Mr. O’Reilly! Your captivity will be mild, rest assured. And as any inconvenience deserves compensation, here is an order for a thousand pistoles beyond the price of the pendants, to make you forget the trouble I’m causing you.”
D’Artagnan could not get over his surprise at this minister who moved men and millions unstintingly.
As for the goldsmith, he wrote to his wife, sending her the order for a thousand pistoles, and telling her to send him in exchange his most skillful apprentice and an assortment of diamonds, of which he gave her the weight and water, along with a list of the tools he needed.
Buckingham led the goldsmith to the room intended for him, which in half an hour was transformed into a workshop. Then he placed a sentinel at each door with orders to let no one enter except his valet Patrick. It is unnecessary to add that the goldsmith O’Reilly and his apprentice were strictly forbidden to leave under whatever pretext.
With that taken care of, the duke went back to d’Artagnan.
“Now, my young friend,” he said, “England is ours. What do you want, what would you like?”
“A bed,” replied d’Artagnan. “For the moment, I must confess, that is what I need most.”
Buckingham gave d’Artagnan a room adjoining his own. He wanted to keep the young man near at hand, not that he distrusted him, but to have someone to whom he could speak constantly of the queen.
An hour later the order was issued in London that no ship laden for France was to be allowed to leave port, not even the mail boat. In the eyes of all, this was a declaration of war between the two kingdoms.
Two days later, at eleven o’clock, the two diamond pendants were finished, so exactly copied, so perfectly the same, that Buckingham could not tell the new from the old, and those most experienced in such matters would have been as fooled as he was.
He immediately called d’Artagnan.
“Well,” he said to him, “here are the diamond pendants you came for, and be my witness that I have done all that human power could do.”
“Rest assured, Milord, I will say what I have seen. But is Your Grace giving me the pendants without the box?”
“The box would hamper you. Besides, the box is the more precious to me in that it is all I have left. You will say that I am keeping it.”
“I will carry out your commission word for word, Milord.”
“And now,” Buckingham went on, gazing fixedly at the young man, “how shall I ever repay you?”
D’Artagnan blushed to the roots of his hair. He saw that the duke was seeking a way to make him accept something, and the idea that the blood of his companions and his own was going to be paid for in English gold was strangely repugnant to him.
“Let us understand each other, Milord,” replied d’Artagnan, “and let us weigh the facts properly in advance, so that there is no mistake. I am in the service of the king and queen of France, and belong to the guards company of M. des Essarts, who is particularly attached to Their Majesties, as is his brother-inlaw, M. de Tréville. I have thus done everything for the queen and nothing for Your Grace. What’s more, I would perhaps have done none of it, if it were not a question of gratifying someone