Dumas, Alexandre – Ten Years Later
among my friends. With which purpose I sign these presents.
— D’Artagnan.
Planchet appeared very curious to know what D’Artagnan had
written.
“Here,” said the musketeer, “read it”
On reading the last lines the tears came into Planchet’s
eyes. “You think, then, that I would not have given the
money without that? Then I will have none of your five
thousand francs.”
D’Artagnan smiled. “Accept it, accept it, Planchet; and in
that way you will only lose fifteen thousand francs instead
of twenty thousand, and you will not be tempted to disregard
the signature of your master and friend, by losing nothing
at all.”
How well that dear Monsieur d’Artagnan knew the hearts of
men and grocers! They who have pronounced Don Quixote mad
because he rode out to the conquest of an empire with nobody
but Sancho, his squire, and they who have pronounced Sancho
mad because he accompanied his master in his attempt to
conquer the said empire, — they certainly will have no
hesitation in extending the same judgment to D’Artagnan and
Planchet. And yet the first passed for one of the most
subtle spirits among the astute spirits of the court of
France. As to the second, he had acquired by good right the
reputation of having one of the longest heads among the
grocers of the Rue des Lombards; consequently of Paris, and
consequently of France. Now, to consider these two men from
the point of view from which you would consider other men,
and the means by the aid of which they contemplated to
restore a monarch to his throne, compared with other means,
the shallowest brains of the country where brains are most
shallow must have revolted against the presumptuous madness
of the lieutenant and the stupidity of his associate.
Fortunately, D’Artagnan was not a man to listen to the idle
talk of those around him, or to the comments that were made
on himself. He had adopted the motto, “Act well, and let
people talk.” Planchet on his part, had adopted this, “Act
and say nothing.” It resulted from this, that, according to
the custom of all superior geniuses, these two men flattered
themselves intra pectus, with being in the right against all
who found fault with them.
As a beginning, D’Artagnan set out in the finest of possible
weather, without a cloud in the heavens — without a cloud
on his mind, joyous and strong, calm and decided, great in
his resolution, and consequently carrying with him a tenfold
dose of that potent fluid which the shocks of mind cause to
spring from the nerves, and which procure for the human
machine a force and an influence of which future ages will
render, according to all probability, a more arithmetical
account than we can possibly do at present. He was again, as
in times past, on that same road of adventures which had led
him to Boulogne, and which he was now traveling for the
fourth time. It appeared to him that he could almost
recognize the trace of his own steps upon the road, and that
of his first upon the doors of the hostelries; — his
memory, always active and present, brought back that youth
which neither thirty years later his great heart nor his
wrist of steel would have belied. What a rich nature was
Page 133
Dumas, Alexandre – Ten Years Later
that of this man! He had all the passions, all the defects,
all the weaknesses, and the spirit of contradiction familiar
to his understanding changed all these imperfections into
corresponding qualities. D’Artagnan, thanks to his ever
active imagination, was afraid of a shadow; and ashamed of
being afraid, he marched straight up to that shadow, and
then became extravagant in his bravery if the danger proved
to be real. Thus everything in him was emotion, and
therefore enjoyment. He loved the society of others, but
never became tired of his own; and more than once, if he
could have been heard when he was alone, he might have been
seen laughing at the jokes he related to himself or the
tricks his imagination created just five minutes before
ennui might have been looked for. D’Artagnan was not perhaps