The Three Musketeers (Translated by Richard Pevear) - Alexandre Dumas [213]
“But how?”
“Listen, try to find her again and have it out with her. Tell her: peace or war! My word as a gentleman that I will never say anything about you and never do anything against you; on your side, a solemn oath to remain neutral regarding me. If not, I’ll go to the chancelier, I’ll go to the king, I’ll go to the executioner, I’ll rouse the court against you, I’ll denounce you as a branded woman, I’ll have you tried, and if they acquit you, well, then, on my word as a gentleman, I’ll kill you at some corner post as I’d kill a mad dog.”
“I rather like that way,” said d’Artagnan, “but how can I find her?”
“Time, my dear, time will afford the opportunity, time is man’s martingale: the more binding it is, the more you gain when you know how to wait.”
“Yes, but to wait surrounded by assassins and poisoners…”
“Bah!” said Athos. “God has preserved us up to now, God will go on preserving us.”
“Us, yes. But anyhow we’re men, and, all things considered, it’s our job to risk our lives; while she!…” he added in a low voice.
“She who?” asked Athos.
“Constance.”
“Mme Bonacieux? Ah, that’s right,” said Athos. “My poor friend, I’d forgotten you were in love!”
“Well,” said Aramis, “but haven’t you seen from that same letter you found on the wretched dead man that she’s in a convent? It’s very good to be in a convent, and once the siege of La Rochelle is over, I promise you that for my part…”
“Right!” said Athos. “Right! Yes, my dear Aramis, we know you have religious leanings.”
“I am only an interim musketeer,” Aramis said humbly.
“It appears he hasn’t had news from his mistress for a long time,” Athos said softly, “but pay no attention, we know all that.”
“Well,” said Porthos, “it seems to me there would be a very simple way.”
“What is it?” asked d’Artagnan.
“You say she’s in a convent?” Porthos went on.
“Yes.”
“Well, once the siege is over, we’ll abduct her from the convent.”
“But we still have to know which convent it is.”
“That’s true,” said Porthos.
“But I’m thinking,” said Athos, “didn’t you claim, my dear d’Artagnan, that it was the queen who chose this convent for her?”
“Yes, or so I think.”
“Well, then Porthos will help us with that.”
“How so, if you please?”
“Why, through your marquise, your duchess, your princess: she must have a long arm.”
“Shh!” said Porthos, putting a finger to his lips. “I think she’s a cardinalist, and she mustn’t learn anything about it.”
“In that case,” said Aramis, “I’ll take charge of finding out the news.”
“You, Aramis?” cried the three friends. “And how is that?”
“Through the queen’s chaplain, with whom I have close ties…” said Aramis, blushing.
And on this assurance, the four friends, who had finished their modest meal, separated with a promise to see each other that same evening. D’Artagnan returned to the Minimes, and the three musketeers went back to the king’s sector, where they had to have their quarters prepared.
XLIII
THE INN OF THE RED DOVECOTE
Having barely reached camp, the king, who was in great haste to confront the enemy, and who, with a better right than the cardinal, shared his hatred of Buckingham, wanted to make all the arrangements, first for driving the English from the Île de Ré, and then for pressing the siege of La Rochelle. But, in spite of himself, he was held up by the dissensions that broke out between MM. de Bassompierre and Schomberg and the duc d’Angoulême.
MM. Bassompierre and Schomberg were maréchals de France,156 and claimed their right to command the army under the king’s orders; but, fearing that Bassompierre, a Huguenot at heart, would not press hard enough against the English and the Rochelois, his brothers in religion, the cardinal, on the contrary, backed the duc d’Angoulême, whom the king, at his instigation, had named lieutenant general. The result was that, to avoid seeing MM. Bassompierre and Schomberg desert the army, they were obliged to make each of them a separate commander. Bassompierre set up his quarters to the north of the town, from La Leu to Dompierre; the duc d’Angoulême from