The Three Musketeers (Translated by Richard Pevear) - Alexandre Dumas [70]
At the same time and swift as lightning, the unknown man drew his.
“In the name of heaven, Milord!” cried Mme Bonacieux, throwing herself between the two combatants and seizing their swords with her bare hands.
“Milord!” cried d’Artagnan, lit up by a sudden idea. “Milord! Pardon me, Monsieur, but might you be…”
“Milord the duke of Buckingham,” said Mme Bonacieux in a half whisper, “and now you can ruin us all.”
“Milord, Madame, a thousand pardons; but I loved her, Milord, and I was jealous. You know what it is to love, Milord. Pardon me, and tell me how I can get myself killed for Your Grace.”
“You are a brave young man,” said Buckingham, holding a hand out to d’Artagnan, which the latter shook respectfully. “You offer me your services, I accept them. Follow us at twenty paces to the Louvre, and if anyone spies on us, kill him!”
D’Artagnan put his bare sword under his arm, allowed Mme Bonacieux and the duke to go twenty paces ahead, and followed them, ready to carry out to the letter the instructions of the noble and elegant minister of Charles I.
But luckily the young henchman had no occasion to give the duke that proof of his devotion, and the young woman and the handsome musketeer entered the Louvre by the gate on the rue de l’Échelle without any trouble.
As for d’Artagnan, he went at once to the Pomme de Pin, where he found Porthos and Aramis waiting.
But, without giving them any other explanation of the inconvenience he had caused them, he told them that he himself had finished the business for which he had thought briefly that he might need their intervention.
And now, carried away as we are by our story, let us allow our three friends to go to their own homes, while we follow the duke of Buckingham and his guide through the intricacies of the Louvre.
XII
GEORGE VILLIERS, DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM
Mme Bonacieux and the duke entered the Louvre without difficulty. Mme Bonacieux was known to be connected with the queen; the duke was wearing the uniform of M. de Tréville’s musketeers, who, as we have said, were on guard duty that night. Besides, Germain was attached to the queen, and if anything happened, Mme Bonacieux would be accused of having brought her lover into the Louvre, that was all. She would take the crime upon herself: true, her reputation would be ruined, but what value does the reputation of a little mercer’s wife have in the world?
Once inside the courtyard, the duke and the young woman followed the base of the wall for a distance of some twenty-five steps; having gone that distance, Mme Bonacieux pushed at a small service door, open during the day but ordinarily locked at night. The door yielded; they both went in and found themselves in the dark, but Mme Bonacieux knew all the twists and turns of that part of the Louvre, which was reserved for attendants. She closed the door behind her, took the duke by the hand, felt her way for a few steps, grasped a banister, touched a step with her foot, and began climbing a stairway: the duke counted two floors. Then she turned right, followed a long corridor, went back down one floor, took several more steps, put a key into a lock, opened a door, and pushed the duke into an apartment lit only by a night-light, saying: “Stay here, Milord Duke, someone will come.” Then she went out by the same door, which she locked, so that the duke found himself literally a prisoner.
However, isolated as he turned out to be, it must be said that the duke of Buckingham felt not a moment of fear; one of the conspicuous sides of his character was the search for adventure and a love of the romantic. Brave, bold, enterprising, this was not the first time he had risked his life in such endeavors. He had learned that the supposed message from Anne d’Autriche, on the credit of which he had come to Paris, was a trap, and instead of returning to England, he had declared to the queen, abusing the position he had been put in, that he would not leave without seeing her. The queen had positively refused at first, but finally became afraid that the