The Three Musketeers (Translated by Richard Pevear) - Alexandre Dumas [25]
When everyone was gone and the door was closed again, M. de Tréville turned and found himself alone with the young man. The event that had just occurred had made him lose the thread of his thoughts somewhat. He asked what the obstinate petitioner wanted of him. D’Artagnan then gave his name, and M. de Tréville, recalling at a single stroke all his memories both present and past, found himself informed of the situation.
“Forgive me,” he said with a smile, “forgive me, my dear compatriot, but I had completely forgotten you. No help for it! A captain is nothing but the father of a family, burdened with greater responsibility than the ordinary father of a family. Soldiers are big children; but as I insist that the orders of the king, and above all those of M. le cardinal, be carried out…”
D’Artagnan could not conceal a smile. At that smile, M. de Tréville decided that he was by no means dealing with a fool and changed the subject, coming straight to the point.
“I loved your good father very much,” he said. “What can I do for his son? Be quick, my time is not my own.”
“Monsieur,” said d’Artagnan, “in leaving Tarbes and coming here, my intention was to ask you, in memory of that friendship which you have not forgotten, for the tabard of a musketeer; but, after all I’ve seen in the last two hours, I realize that it would be an enormous favor, and I fear I am not at all worthy of it.”
“It is indeed a favor, young man,” answered M. de Tréville, “but it may not be so far above you as you believe, or as you seem to believe. However, a decision of His Majesty has provided for this case, and I regret to inform you that no one is made a musketeer without the prior proof of several campaigns, of certain brilliant actions, or two years of service in some other regiment less favored than ours.”
D’Artagnan accepted without any reply. He felt all the more eager to put on the uniform of a musketeer, since there were such great difficulties in obtaining it.
“But,” Tréville went on, fixing such a piercing gaze on his compatriot that one would have thought he wanted to read to the bottom of his heart, “but, for the sake of your father, my old companion, as I have told you, I would like to do something for you, young man. Our cadets from Béarn are ordinarily not rich, and I doubt that things have changed greatly since I left the province. So you must not have much to live on from the money you brought with you.”
D’Artagnan drew himself up with a proud air which meant to say that he asked no alms of anyone.
“Very well, young man, very well,” Tréville went on, “I know those airs. I came to Paris with four écus in my pocket, and I’d have fought with anybody who told me I was in no condition to buy the Louvre.”
D’Artagnan drew himself up still more. Thanks to the sale of his horse, he was beginning his career with four écus more than M. de Tréville had begun his with.
“So, as I was saying, you must have a need to hold on to what you’ve got, great as that sum may be; but you must also have a need to perfect yourself in the exercises proper to a gentleman. I will write a letter today to the director of the Royal Academy,23 and as of tomorrow he will admit you without any payment. Do not refuse this small kindness. Our best born and richest gentlemen sometimes seek it without managing to obtain it. You will learn horsemanship, fencing, and dancing; you will make good acquaintances there; and from time to time you will come back to see me and tell me where you’ve gotten to and if there’s anything I can do for you.”
D’Artagnan, stranger as he still was to court manners, found a certain coolness in this reception.
“Alas, Monsieur,” he said, “I see how great a loss the letter of introduction my father gave me for you is to me today.”
“Indeed,” replied M. de Tréville, “I was surprised that you should have undertaken such a long journey without this obligatory viaticum, the only resource known to us Béarnais.”
“I had it, Monsieur, and, thank God, in fine form,” cried