regular, brings every twelve hours its contingency to my
coffers. I am the first Parisian who has dreamt of such a
speculation. Do not say anything about it, I beg of you, and
in a short time we will communicate on the matter. I am to
have three leagues of country for thirty thousand livres.”
Aramis darted a look at Porthos, as if to ask if all this
were true, if some snare were not concealed beneath this
outward indifference. But soon, as if ashamed of having
consulted this poor auxiliary, he collected all his forces
for a fresh assault and new defense. “I heard that you had
had some difference with the court but that you had come out
of it as you know how to get through everything, D’Artagnan,
with the honors of war.”
“I!” said the musketeer, with a burst of laughter that did
not conceal his embarrassment, for, from these words, Aramis
was not unlikely to be acquainted with his last relations
with the king. “I! Oh, tell me all about that, pray,
Aramis?”
“Yes, it was related to me, a poor bishop, lost in the
middle of the Landes, that the king had taken you as the
confidant of his amours.”
“With whom?”
“With Mademoiselle de Mancini.”
D’Artagnan breathed freely again. “Ah! I don’t say no to
that,” replied he.
“It appears that the king took you one morning over the
bridge of Blois to talk with his lady-love.”
“That’s true,” said D’Artagnan. “And you know that, do you?
Well, then, you must know that the same day I gave in my
resignation!”
“What, sincerely?”
“Nothing more so.”
“It was after that, then, that you went to the Comte de la
Fere’s?”
“Yes.”
“Afterwards to me?”
“Yes.”
“And then Porthos?”
“Yes.”
“Was it in order to pay us a simple visit?”
Page 420
Dumas, Alexandre – Ten Years Later
“No, I did not know you were engaged, and I wished to take
you with me into England.”
“Yes, I understand; and then you executed alone, wonderful
man as you are, what you wanted to propose to us all four. I
suspected you had something to do with that famous
restoration, when I learned that you had been seen at King
Charles’s receptions, and that he appeared to treat you like
a friend, or rather like a person to whom he was under an
obligation.”
“But how the devil did you learn all that?” asked
D’Artagnan, who began to fear that the investigation of
Aramis had extended further than he wished.
“Dear D’Artagnan,” said the prelate, “my friendship
resembles, in a degree, the solicitude of that night watch
whom we have in the little tower of the mole, at the
extremity of the quay. That brave man, every night, lights a
lantern to direct the barks that come from sea. He is
concealed in his sentry-box, and the fishermen do not see
him; but he follows them with interest; he divines them; he
calls them; he attracts them into the way to the port. I
resemble this watcher: from time to time some news reaches
me, and recalls to my remembrance all those I loved. Then I
follow the friends of old days over the stormy ocean of the
world, I, a poor watcher, to whom God has kindly given the
shelter of a sentry-box.”
“Well, what did I do when I came from England?”
“Ah! there,” replied Aramis, “you get beyond my depth. I
know nothing of you since your return. D’Artagnan, my eyes
are dim. I regretted you did not think of me. I wept over
your forgetfulness. I was wrong. I see you again, and it is
a festival, a great festival, I assure you, solemnly! How is
Athos?”
“Very well, thank you.”
“And our young pupil, Raoul?”
“He seems to have inherited the skill of his father, Athos,
and the strength of his tutor, Porthos.”
“And on what occasion have you been able to judge of that?”
“Eh! mon Dieu! on the eve of my departure from Paris.”
“Indeed! tell me all about it!”
“Yes; there was an execution at the Greve, and in
consequence of that execution, a riot. We happened by