gayety? No. We have had great annoyances there. As for me, I
play my game squarely, fairly, and above board, as I always
do. Let us come to some conclusion. Are you one of us,
Monsieur de Rochefort?”
“I am very desirous of being so, my lord, but I am totally
in the dark about everything. In the Bastile one talks
politics only with soldiers and jailers, and you have not an
idea, my lord, how little is known of what is going on by
people of that sort; I am of Monsieur de Bassompierre’s
party. Is he still one of the seventeen peers of France?”
“He is dead, sir; a great loss. His devotion to the queen
was boundless; men of loyalty are scarce.”
“I think so, forsooth,” said Rochefort, “and when you find
any of them, you march them off to the Bastile. However,
there are plenty in the world, but you don’t look in the
right direction for them, my lord.”
“Indeed! explain to me. Ah! my dear Monsieur de Rochefort,
how much you must have learned during your intimacy with the
late cardinal! Ah! he was a great man.”
“Will your eminence be angry if I read you a lesson?”
“I! never! you know you may say anything to me. I try to be
beloved, not feared.”
“Well, there is on the wall of my cell, scratched with a
nail, a proverb, which says, `Like master, like servant.'”
“Pray, what does that mean?”
“It means that Monsieur de Richelieu was able to find trusty
servants, dozens and dozens of them.”
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“He! the point aimed at by every poniard! Richelieu, who
passed his life in warding off blows which were forever
aimed at him!”
“But he did ward them off,” said De Rochefort, “and the
reason was, that though he had bitter enemies he possessed
also true friends. I have known persons,” he continued —
for he thought he might avail himself of the opportunity of
speaking of D’Artagnan — “who by their sagacity and address
have deceived the penetration of Cardinal Richelieu; who by
their valor have got the better of his guards and spies;
persons without money, without support, without credit, yet
who have preserved to the crowned head its crown and made
the cardinal crave pardon.”
“But those men you speak of,” said Mazarin, smiling inwardly
on seeing Rochefort approach the point to which he was
leading him, “those men were not devoted to the cardinal,
for they contended against him.”
“No; in that case they would have met with more fitting
reward. They had the misfortune to be devoted to that very
queen for whom just now you were seeking servants.”
“But how is it that you know so much of these matters?”
“I know them because the men of whom I speak were at that
time my enemies; because they fought against me; because I
did them all the harm I could and they returned it to the
best of their ability; because one of them, with whom I had
most to do, gave me a pretty sword-thrust, now about seven
years ago, the third that I received from the same hand; it
closed an old account.”
“Ah!” said Mazarin, with admirable suavity, “could I but
find such men!”
“My lord, there has stood for six years at your very door a
man such as I describe, and during those six years he has
been unappreciated and unemployed by you.”
“Who is it?”
“It is Monsieur d’Artagnan.”
“That Gascon!” cried Mazarin, with well acted surprise.
“`That Gascon’ has saved a queen and made Monsieur de
Richelieu confess that in point of talent, address and
political skill, to him he was only a tyro.”
“Really?”
“It is as I have the honor of telling it to your
excellency.”
“Tell me a little about it, my dear Monsieur de Rochefort.”
“That is somewhat difficult, my lord,” said Rochefort, with
a smile.
“Then he will tell it me himself.”
“I doubt it, my lord.”
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Dumas, Alexandre – Twenty Years After
“Why do you doubt it?”
“Because the secret does not belong to him; because, as I