The Three Musketeers (Translated by Richard Pevear) - Alexandre Dumas [212]
D’Artagnan rushed to the pothouse, the three musketeers and the two guards behind him.
The first thing that struck d’Artagnan’s eyes on going into the dining room was Brisemont lying on the floor and rolling about in atrocious convulsions.
Planchet and Fourreau, pale as death, were trying to help him, but it was obvious that all help was useless: the dying man’s features were twisted in agony.
“Ah!” he cried out on seeing d’Artagnan, “ah! it’s abominable! You seemed to grant me mercy, and now you’ve poisoned me!”
“I?” cried d’Artagnan. “I, you poor wretch? What are you saying?”
“I say it was you who gave me that wine, I say it was you who told me to drink it, I say you wanted to revenge yourself on me, I say it’s abominable!”
“Don’t think it, Brisemont,” said d’Artagnan, “don’t think it. I swear to you, I protest to you…”
“Oh! but God is there! God will punish you! My God, some day let him suffer what I’m suffering!”
“On the Gospel,” cried d’Artagnan, rushing to the dying man, “I swear to you, I didn’t know the wine was poisoned, and I was going to drink it just like you.”
“I don’t believe you,” said the soldier.
And in redoubled torment, he expired.
“Abominable! Abominable!” murmured Athos, while Porthos broke the bottles and Aramis gave somewhat belated orders to send for a confessor.
“Oh, my friends,” said d’Artagnan, “you’ve just saved my life again, and not only mine, but these gentlemen’s as well! Gentlemen,” he went on, addressing the guards, “I ask you to keep silent about this whole adventure. Great personages may have had a hand in what you’ve seen, and the evil of it all will fall back on us.”
“Ah, Monsieur!” stammered Planchet, more dead than alive, “ah, Monsieur! I’ve had a narrow escape!”
“What, you rascal,” cried d’Artagnan. “So you were going to drink my wine?”
“To the king’s health, Monsieur, I would have drunk one little glass, if Fourreau hadn’t told me that someone was calling me.”
“Alas!” said Fourreau, whose teeth were chattering with terror. “I wanted him out of the way so that I could drink by myself!”
“Gentlemen,” said d’Artagnan, addressing the guards, “you understand that such a feast could not help but be rather sad after what has just happened. Please accept all my excuses and put off the party till another day.”
The two guards courteously accepted d’Artagnan’s excuses, and, understanding that the four friends wished to remain alone, they withdrew.
Once the young guard and the three musketeers were without witnesses, they looked at each other with an air which meant to say that each of them understood the gravity of the situation.
“First of all,” said Athos, “let’s leave this room. A dead man is bad company, especially one who has died a violent death.”
“Planchet,” said d’Artagnan, “I entrust the poor devil’s body to you. Let him be buried in hallowed ground. He committed a crime, it’s true, but he repented of it.”
And the four friends went out, leaving to Planchet and Fourreau the task of rendering mortuary honors to Brisemont.
The host gave them another room, in which he served them boiled eggs and water, which Athos went to draw from the well himself. In a few words, Porthos and Aramis were let in on the situation.
“Well, then,” d’Artagnan said to Athos, “you see, my dear friend, that it’s war to the death.”
Athos shook his head.
“Yes, yes,” he said, “I see it very well; but do you think she’s the same one?”
“I’m sure of it.”
“I confess to you that I still have doubts.”
“But what about the fleur-de-lis on her shoulder?”
“She’s an Englishwoman who must have committed some misdeed in France, and she must have been branded in consequence of her crime.”
“Athos, she’s your wife, I tell you,” d’Artagnan repeated. “Don’t you remember how close the two descriptions are?”
“Yet I’d have thought the other one was dead—I hanged her well enough.”
This time it was d’Artagnan who shook his head.
“But what to do, finally?” said the young man.
“The fact is that we can’t remain like this, with a sword eternally hanging over our heads,” said Athos. “We must