“Is it not,- with loss too?” And Colbert laughed aloud. He was delighted with his own joke. “Still further,” added he, “these same Dutch are building for the King at this moment six vessels after the model of the best of their marine. Destouches- ah! perhaps you don’t know Destouches?”
“No, Monsieur.”
“He is a man who has a glance singularly sure to discern, when a ship is launched, what are the defects and qualities of that ship,- that is valuable, please to observe! Nature is truly whimsical. Well, this Destouches appeared to me to be a man likely to be useful in a port, and he is superintending the construction of six vessels of seventy-eight guns, which the Provinces are building for his Majesty. It results from all this, my dear M. d’Artagnan, that the King, if he wished to quarrel with the Provinces, would have a very pretty fleet. Now, you know better than anybody else if the land army is good.”
D’Artagnan and Aramis looked at each other, wondering at the mysterious labors this man had effected in a few years. Colbert understood them, and was touched by this best of flatteries. “If we in France were ignorant of what was going on,” said d’Artagnan, “out of France still less must be known.”
“That is why I told Monsieur the Ambassador,” said Colbert, “that Spain promising its neutrality, England helping us-”
“If England assists you,” said Aramis, “I engage for the neutrality of Spain.”
“I take you at your word,” hastened Colbert to reply with his blunt bonhomie. “And, a propos of Spain, you have not the ‘Golden Fleece,’ M. d’Alameda. I heard the King say the other day that he should like to see you wear the grand cordon of Saint Michael.”
Aramis bowed. “Oh!” thought d’Artagnan, “and Porthos is no longer here! What ells of ribbon would there be for him in these largesses! Good Porthos!”
“M. d’Artagnan,” resumed Colbert, “between us two, you will have, I would wager, an inclination to lead your Musketeers into Holland. Can you swim?” and he laughed like a man in a very good humor.
“Like an eel,” replied d’Artagnan.
“Ah! but there are some rough passages of canals and marshes yonder, M. d’Artagnan, and the best swimmers are sometimes drowned there.”
“It is my profession to die for his Majesty,” said the musketeer. “Only as it is seldom that in war much water is met with without a little fire, I declare to you beforehand that I will do my best to choose fire. I am getting old; water freezes me, fire warms, M. Colbert.”
And d’Artagnan looked so handsome in juvenile vigor and pride as he pronounced these words that Colbert, in his turn, could not help admiring him. D’Artagnan perceived the effect he had produced. He remembered that the best tradesman is he who fixes a high price upon his goods when they are valuable. He prepared, then, his price in advance.
“So then,” said Colbert, “we go into Holland?”
“Yes,” replied d’Artagnan; “only-”
“Only?” said M. Colbert.
“Only,” repeated d’Artagnan, “there is in everything the question of interest and the question of self-love. It is a very fine title,- that of captain of the Musketeers; but observe this: we have now the King’s Guards and the military household of the King. A captain of Musketeers ought either to command all that, and then he would absorb a hundred thousand livres a year for expenses of representation and table-”
“Well; but do you suppose, by chance, that the King would haggle with you?” said Colbert.
“Eh, Monsieur, you have not understood me,” replied d’Artagnan, sure of having carried the question of interest; “I was telling you that I,- an old captain, formerly chief of the King’s guard, having precedence of the marshals of France,- I saw myself one day in the trenches with two equals, the captain of the Guards and the colonel commanding the Swiss. Now, at no price will I suffer that. I have old habits; I will stand to them.”
Colbert felt this blow, but was prepared for it. “I have been thinking of what you said just now,” said he.
“About what, Monsieur?”