with a wide brim. The cardinal put it on in military style.
“Your horses are ready saddled in their stables, are they
not?” he said, turning to D’Artagnan.
“Yes, my lord.”
“Well, let us set out.”
“How many men does your eminence wish to escort you?”
“You say that with four men you will undertake to disperse a
hundred low fellows; as it may happen that we shall have to
encounter two hundred, take eight —- ”
“As many as my lord wishes.”
“I will follow you. This way — light us downstairs Bernouin.
The valet held a wax-light; the cardinal took a key from his
bureau and opening the door of a secret stair descended into
the court of the Palais Royal.
2
A Nightly Patrol.
Page 12
Dumas, Alexandre – Twenty Years After
In ten minutes Mazarin and his party were traversing the
street “Les Bons Enfants” behind the theatre built by
Richelieu expressly for the play of “Mirame,” and in which
Mazarin, who was an amateur of music, but not of literature,
had introduced into France the first opera that was ever
acted in that country.
The appearance of the town denoted the greatest agitation.
Numberless groups paraded the streets and, whatever
D’Artagnan might think of it, it was obvious that the
citizens had for the night laid aside their usual
forbearance, in order to assume a warlike aspect. From time
to time noises came in the direction of the public markets.
The report of firearms was heard near the Rue Saint Denis
and occasionally church bells began to ring indiscriminately
and at the caprice of the populace. D’Artagnan, meantime,
pursued his way with the indifference of a man upon whom
such acts of folly made no impression. When he approached a
group in the middle of the street he urged his horse upon it
without a word of warning; and the members of the group,
whether rebels or not, as if they knew with what sort of a
man they had to deal, at once gave place to the patrol. The
cardinal envied that composure, which he attributed to the
habit of meeting danger; but none the less he conceived for
the officer under whose orders he had for the moment placed
himself, that consideration which even prudence pays to
careless courage. On approaching an outpost near the
Barriere des Sergens, the sentinel cried out, “Who’s there?”
and D’Artagnan answered — having first asked the word of
the cardinal — “Louis and Rocroy.” After which he inquired
if Lieutenant Comminges were not the commanding officer at
the outpost. The soldier replied by pointing out to him an
officer who was conversing, on foot, his hand upon the neck
of a horse on which the individual to whom he was talking
sat. Here was the officer D’Artagnan was seeking.
“Here is Monsieur Comminges,” said D’Artagnan, returning to
the cardinal. He instantly retired, from a feeling of
respectful delicacy; it was, however, evident that the
cardinal was recognized by both Comminges and the other
officers on horseback.
“Well done, Guitant,” cried the cardinal to the equestrian;
“I see plainly that, notwithstanding the sixty-four years
that have passed over your head, you are still the same man,
active and zealous. What were you saying to this youngster?”
“My lord,” replied Guitant, “I was observing that we live in
troublous times and that to-day’s events are very like those
in the days of the Ligue, of which I heard so much in my
youth. Are you aware that the mob have even suggested
throwing up barricades in the Rue Saint Denis and the Rue
Saint Antoine?”
“And what was Comminges saying to you in reply, my good
Guitant?”
“My lord,” said Comminges, “I answered that to compose a
Ligue only one ingredient was wanting — in my opinion an
essential one — a Duc de Guise; moreover, no generation
ever does the same thing twice.”
Page 13
Dumas, Alexandre – Twenty Years After
“No, but they mean to make a Fronde, as they call it,” said
Guitant.
“And what is a Fronde?” inquired Mazarin.
“My lord, Fronde is the name the discontented give to their
party.”
“And what is the origin of this name?”