The Three Musketeers (Translated by Richard Pevear) - Alexandre Dumas [122]
As he passed by the hôtel of the guards, he glanced into the stable: three of the four horses had already come. Planchet, quite dumbfounded, was in the process of currying them and had already finished two.
“Ah, Monsieur!” said Planchet, catching sight of d’Artagnan, “I’m so glad to see you!”
“And why is that, Planchet?” asked the young man.
“Do you trust our landlord, M. Bonacieux?”
“Me? Not in the least.”
“Oh, how right you are, Monsieur!”
“But where does that question come from?”
“From the fact that, while you were talking with him, I was watching without listening to you. Monsieur, his face changed color two or three times.”
“Bah!”
“Monsieur did not notice it, preoccupied as he was with the letter he had just received; but I, on the contrary, who had been put on my guard by the strange way that letter came into the house, I didn’t miss a single movement of his physiognomy.”
“And you found it?”
“Treacherous, Monsieur.”
“Really!”
“What’s more, as soon as Monsieur left him and disappeared around the corner, M. Bonacieux took his hat, locked his door, and went running down the street in the opposite direction.”
“Indeed, you’re right, Planchet, all that struck me as highly suspicious, and, rest assured, we will not pay the rent until the thing has been explained categorically.”
“Monsieur is joking, but Monsieur will see.”
“No help for it, Planchet, what’s to come will come.”
“So Monsieur will not give up his evening promenade?”
“Quite the contrary, Planchet, the more vexed I am with M. Bonacieux, the more intent I am on going to the rendezvous granted me by this letter which worries you so.”
“Well, if that is Monsieur’s determination…”
“Unshakable, my friend. So, then, at nine o’clock be ready here at the hôtel; I’ll come to fetch you.”
Seeing that there was no more hope of making his master give up his plan, Planchet heaved a deep sigh and set about currying the third horse.
As for d’Artagnan, as he was at bottom a very prudent lad, instead of going home, he went to dine with the Gascon priest who, at the time when the four friends were in distress, had given them a breakfast of chocolate.
XXIV
THE PAVILION
At nine o’clock d’Artagnan was at the hôtel of the guards. He found Planchet under arms. The fourth horse had arrived.
Planchet was armed with his musketoon and a pistol.
D’Artagnan had his sword and stuck two pistols in his belt; then they both mounted their horses and noiselessly rode off. It was after nightfall, and no one saw them leave. Planchet set out after his master and rode ten paces behind him.
D’Artagnan crossed the quais, went out through the porte de la Conférence,97 and continued along the road, much more beautiful then than now, that leads to Saint-Cloud.
As long as they were in the city, Planchet respectfully kept the distance he had imposed on himself; but once the road began to be more dark and deserted, he gradually drew closer, so that when they entered the bois de Boulogne, he found himself quite naturally riding side by side with his master. Indeed, we must not conceal the fact that the swaying of the tall trees and the glimmer of moonlight in the dark coppices caused him intense anxiety. D’Artagnan noticed that something extraordinary was going on in his lackey.
“Well, then, M. Planchet,” he asked him, “how are we feeling?”
“Don’t you find, Monsieur, that woods are like churches?”
“Why is that, Planchet?”
“Because you don’t dare speak aloud in either of them.”
“Why don’t you dare speak aloud, Planchet? Because you’re afraid?”
“Afraid of being heard, yes, Monsieur.”
“Afraid of being heard? But our conversation is quite moral, my dear Planchet, and no one could find fault with it.”
“Ah, Monsieur!” Planchet picked up, coming back to his mother idea, “that M. Bonacieux has something sly in his eyebrows and unpleasant in the play of his lips!”
“What the devil makes you think of Bonacieux?”
“Monsieur, a man thinks what he can and not what he wants.”
“Because you’re a poltroon, Planchet.”
“Monsieur, don’t confuse prudence