The Three Musketeers (Translated by Richard Pevear) - Alexandre Dumas [80]
The cardinal repressed a second smile.
“So you are unaware of what has become of your wife since her flight?”
“Absolutely, Monseigneur. But she must have returned to the Louvre.”
“At one o’clock in the morning she had not yet returned.”
“Ah, my God! But what’s become of her then?”
“We’ll find out, don’t worry. Nothing is hidden from the cardinal; the cardinal knows everything.”
“In that case, Monseigneur, do you think the cardinal will consent to tell me what has become of my wife?”
“Perhaps. But first you will have to confess all you know concerning your wife’s relations with Mme de Chevreuse.”
“But, Monseigneur, I know nothing, I’ve never seen her.”
“When you went to fetch your wife at the Louvre, did she always go straight home with you?”
“Hardly ever. She had to deal with the cloth merchants I brought her to.”
“And how many cloth merchants were there?”
“Two, Monseigneur.”
“Where do they live?”
“One on the rue de Vaugirard, the other on the rue de La Harpe.”
“Did you go into their shops with her?”
“Never, Monseigneur. I waited at the door.”
“And what pretext did she give you for going in alone like that?”
“She never gave me any; she told me to wait, and I waited.”
“You are an obliging husband, my dear M. Bonacieux,” said the cardinal.
“He calls me his dear Monsieur!” the mercer said to himself. “Damn, things are going well!”
“Would you recognize those doors?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know the numbers?”
“Yes”
“What are they?”
“25 rue de Vaugirard, and 75 rue de la Harpe.”
“Very well,” said the cardinal.
At these words he picked up a silver bell and rang. The officer came in.
“Go,” he said in a low voice, “find Rochefort for me. Have him come at once, if he’s back.”
“The count is here,” said the officer. “He asks urgently to speak with Your Eminence!”
“With Your Eminence?” murmured Bonacieux, who knew that this was the title usually given to M. le cardinal…“with Your Eminence?”
“Let him come in then, let him come in!” Richelieu said brusquely.
The officer rushed out of the room with that rapidity which all the cardinal’s servants usually put into obeying him.
“With Your Eminence?” murmured Bonacieux, rolling his wild eyes.
Five seconds had not gone by since the officer’s disappearance, when the door opened and a new character came in.
“It’s he!” cried Bonacieux.
“He who?” asked the cardinal.
“The one who abducted my wife!”
The cardinal rang a second time. The officer reappeared.
“Put this man back into the hands of his two guards, and let him wait until I summon him before me.”
“No, Monseigneur, no, it’s not him!” cried Bonacieux. “No, I was wrong: it was somebody else who doesn’t resemble him at all! Monsieur is an honest man.”
“Take this imbecile away!” said the cardinal.
The officer took Bonacieux under the arm and brought him back to the antechamber, where he found his two guards.
The new character who has just been introduced followed Bonacieux impatiently with his eyes until he was gone, and once the door was closed again behind him, approached the cardinal briskly and said:
“They’ve seen each other.”
“Who?” asked His Eminence.
“She and he.”
“The queen and the duke?” cried Richelieu.
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“At the Louvre.”
“You’re sure?”
“Perfectly sure.”
“Who told you?”
“Mme de Lannoy,65 who is all for Your Eminence, as you know.”
“Why didn’t she say so sooner?”
“By chance, or by mistrust, the queen had Mme de Fargis66 sleep in her room, and kept her all day.”
“Very well, we’re beaten. Let us try to take our revenge.”
“I will help you with all my soul, Monseigneur, rest assured.”
“How did it happen?”
“At half-past midnight, the queen was with her women…”
“Where?”
“In her bedroom.”
“Very well.”
“When someone came to give her a handkerchief on the part of her seamstress…”
“And then?”
“The queen at once showed great emotion, and, despite the rouge with which she had painted her face, she turned pale.”
“And then? And then?”
“She stood up, however, and said in an altered voice: ‘Ladies, wait for me ten minutes, then