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By Root 1067 0

four friends was certainly d’Artagnan, though d’Artagnan, in his quality as a guard, was much easier to outfit than the gentlemen musketeers, who were noblemen. But our cadet from Gascony, as we have been able to see, was of a provident and almost miserly character, and with that (try explaining contraries) almost vainglorious enough to give points to Porthos. To this preoccupation of his vanity, d’Artagnan joined at that moment a less egotistical anxiety. The few inquiries he had been able to make about Mme Bonacieux had brought him no news. M. de Tréville had spoken of her to the queen; the queen did not know where the mercer’s young wife was and promised to have a search made for her. But this promise was quite vague and hardly reassured d’Artagnan.

Athos did not leave his room. He was determined not to venture a single step to outfit himself.

“We still have fifteen days,” he said to his friends. “Well, then, if I’ve found nothing at the end of those fifteen days, or rather if nothing has come to find me, since I’m too good a Catholic to blow my brains out with a pistol, I’ll pick a nice quarrel with four of His Eminence’s guards or eight Englishmen, and fight till one of them kills me, which, quantitatively speaking, cannot fail to happen. It will then be said that I died for the king, so that I’ll have done my service without needing to outfit myself.”

Porthos went on pacing, his hands behind his back, tossing his head and saying:

“I’ll pursue my idea.”

Aramis, worried and poorly curled, said nothing.

It can be seen from these disastrous details that desolation reigned in the community.

The lackeys, for their part, like the steeds of Hippolytus,129 shared the sorry plight of their masters. Mousqueton laid in a supply of crusts; Bazin, who had always been given to devotion, no longer left church; Planchet watched the flies flying; and Grimaud, whom the general distress could not induce to break the silence imposed by his master, heaved sighs that would have moved the hearts of stones.

The three friends—for, as we have said, Athos had sworn not to make a step to outfit himself—the three friends thus left early in the morning and came back late at night. They wandered through the streets, examining each paving stone to see if those who had passed there before them had not dropped some purse. One would have thought they were following trails, so attentive they were wherever they went. When they met, their desolate looks as much as said: “Have you found anything?”

However, as Porthos had been the first to find his idea, and as he had pursued it with persistence, he was the first to act. This worthy Porthos was a man of deeds. D’Artagnan caught sight of him one day heading for the church of Saint-Leu, and followed him instinctively. He went into the holy place after turning up his mustaches and stroking his imperial, which with him always signaled the boldest intentions. As d’Artagnan took some precautions to conceal himself, Porthos believed he had not been seen. D’Artagnan entered after him. Porthos went and leaned against the side of a pillar; d’Artagnan, still unseen, leaned on the other side.

A sermon was just being delivered, which meant that the church was filled with people. Porthos profited from this circumstance to ogle the ladies. Thanks to Mousqueton’s good care, the exterior was far from betraying the distress of the interior; his hat was indeed a bit worn, his plume a bit faded, his embroideries a bit dull, his lace a bit frayed; but in the semidarkness all these trifles disappeared, and Porthos was still the handsome Porthos.

D’Artagnan noticed, on the bench closest to the pillar against which he and Porthos were leaning, a sort of ripe beauty, a bit yellow, a bit dry, but erect and haughty under her black lace mantilla. Porthos’s eyes dropped furtively to this lady, then fluttered off through the nave of the church.

For her part, the lady, who blushed from time to time, cast a lightning quick glance at the fickle Porthos, and Porthos’s eyes at once began fluttering away furiously. It was clear