The Three Musketeers (Translated by Richard Pevear) - Alexandre Dumas [129]
“Ah, Monsieur!” cried Planchet the moment he caught sight of his master. “There’s just been another one, and I thought you were never coming home!”
“What’s the matter?” asked d’Artagnan.
“Oh, I’ll give you a hundred, Monsieur, I’ll give you a thousand guesses what visit I just received for you in your absence.”
“When was that?”
“Half an hour ago, while you were at M. de Tréville’s.”
“And who was it that came? Come, speak.”
“M. de Cavois.”98
“M. de Cavois?”
“Himself.”
“He came to arrest me?”
“I suspect so, Monsieur, and that despite his fawning look.”
“You say he had a fawning look?”
“That is, he was sweet as honey, Monsieur.”
“Really?”
“He came, he said, on the part of His Eminence, who wishes you well, to beg you to go with him to the Palais-Royal.”99
“And you replied?”
“That the thing was impossible, given that you were away from home, as he could see.”
“What did he say then?”
“That you should be sure to pass by his office sometime today. Then he added in a low voice: ‘Tell your master that His Eminence is perfectly well disposed towards him, and that his fortune may depend on this interview.’”
“The trap is rather a clumsy one for the cardinal,” the young man picked up with a smile.
“I saw it was a trap, too, and I replied that you would be heartbroken on your return.”
“‘Where has he gone?’ asked M. de Cavois.
“‘To Troyes in Champagne,’ I replied.
“‘And when did he leave?’
“‘Last night.’”
“Planchet, my friend,” d’Artagnan interrupted, “you are truly a precious man.”
“You understand, Monsieur, I thought that if you wanted to see M. de Cavois, you would always be able to contradict me and say you never left. It would be I who had lied, in that case, and since I’m not a gentleman, I can always lie.”
“Don’t worry, Planchet, you’ll keep your reputation as a truthful man: we’re leaving in a quarter of an hour.”
“That’s the advice I was about to give Monsieur. And where are we going, if I’m not being too curious?”
“Pardieu! in the opposite direction from the one you said I went in. Besides, aren’t you in as much of a hurry to have news of Grimaud, Mousqueton, and Bazin as I am to know what’s become of Athos, Porthos, and Aramis?”
“Indeed so, Monsieur,” said Planchet, “and I’ll leave whenever you like. I think the provincial air will be better for us right now than the air of Paris. So then…”
“So then, pack our things, Planchet, and let’s be going. I’ll go on ahead with my hands in my pockets, so no one will suspect anything. Meet me at the hôtel of the guards. By the way, Planchet, I believe you’re right as regards our landlord, and that he is decidedly a dreadful scoundrel.”
“Ah, believe me, Monsieur, when I tell you something; I’m a physiognomist, so I am!”
D’Artagnan went downstairs first, as had been agreed. Then, so as to have nothing to reproach himself with, he went around to his friends’ quarters one last time: there was no news of them; only one heavily perfumed letter in a small and elegant hand had come for Aramis. D’Artagnan took charge of it. Ten minutes later, Planchet rejoined him at the stables of the hôtel of the guards. So as not to lose time, d’Artagnan had already saddled his horse himself.
“Good,” he said to Planchet, when the latter had joined the bags to their outfit, “now saddle the other three and let’s go.”
“Do you think we’ll go more quickly with two horses each?” Planchet asked with his mocking air.
“No, mister bad joker,” replied d’Artagnan, “but with our four horses we’ll be able to bring back our three friends—that is, if we find them alive.”
“Which will be great luck,” replied Planchet, “but one mustn’t finally despair of God’s mercy.”
“Amen,” said d’Artagnan, mounting his horse.
And they both left the hôtel of the guards, going off in opposite directions, one to leave Paris by the porte de La Villette and the other by the porte de Montmartre, to meet again beyond Saint-Denis, a strategic maneuver which, having been carried out with equal punctuality, was crowned with the happiest results. D’Artagnan and Planchet entered Pierrefitte together.