messenger, for sixpence, who sold it to me for a guinea.”
“And what on earth are you going to do with it?” asked
Athos.
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Dumas, Alexandre – Twenty Years After
“Can’t you guess, my dear Athos? You, who speak English like
John Bull himself, are Master Tom Lowe, we, your three
companions. Do you understand it now?”
Athos uttered a cry of joy and admiration, ran to a closet
and drew forth workmen’s clothes, which the four friends
immediately put on; they then left the hotel, Athos carrying
a saw, Porthos a vise, Aramis an axe and D’Artagnan a hammer
and some nails.
The letter from the executioner’s assistant satisfied the
master carpenter that those were the men he expected.
65
The Workmen.
Toward midnight Charles heard a great noise beneath his
window. It arose from blows of hammer and hatchet, clinking
of pincers and cranching of saws.
Lying dressed upon his bed, the noise awoke him with a start
and found a gloomy echo in his heart. He could not endure
it, and sent Parry to ask the sentinel to beg the workmen to
strike more gently and not disturb the last slumber of one
who had been their king. The sentinel was unwilling to leave
his post, but allowed Parry to pass.
Arriving at the window Parry found an unfinished scaffold,
over which they were nailing a covering of black serge.
Raised to the height of twenty feet, so as to be on a level
with the window, it had two lower stories. Parry, odious as
was this sight to him, sought for those among some eight or
ten workmen who were making the most noise; and fixed on two
men, who were loosening the last hooks of the iron balcony.
“My friends,” said Parry, mounting the scaffold and standing
beside them, “would you work a little more quietly? The king
wishes to get a sleep.”
One of the two, who was standing up, was of gigantic size
and was driving a pick with all his might into the wall,
whilst the other, kneeling beside him, was collecting the
pieces of stone. The face of the first was lost to Parry in
the darkness; but as the second turned around and placed his
finger on his lips Parry started back in amazement.
“Very well, very well,” said the workman aloud, in excellent
English. “Tell the king that if he sleeps badly to-night he
will sleep better to-morrow night.”
These blunt words, so terrible if taken literally, were
received by the other workmen with a roar of laughter. But
Parry withdrew, thinking he was dreaming.
Charles was impatiently awaiting his return. At the moment
he re-entered, the sentinel who guarded the door put his
head through the opening, curious as to what the king was
doing. The king was lying on his bed, resting on his elbow.
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Dumas, Alexandre – Twenty Years After
Parry closed the door and approaching the king, his face
radiant with joy:
“Sire,” he said, in a low voice, “do you know who these
workmen are who are making so much noise?”
“I? No; how would you have me know?”
Parry bent his head and whispered to the king: “It is the
Comte de la Fere and his friends.”
“Raising my scaffold!” cried the king, astounded.
“Yes, and at the same time making a hole in the wall.”
The king clasped his hands and raised his eyes to Heaven;
then leaping down from his bed he went to the window, and
pulling aside the curtain tried to distinguish the figures
outside, but in vain.
Parry was not wrong. It was Athos he had recognized, and
Porthos who was boring a hole through the wall.
This hole communicated with a kind of loft — the space
between the floor of the king’s room and the ceiling of the
one below it. Their plan was to pass through the hole they
were making into this loft and cut out from below a piece of
the flooring of the king’s room, so as to form a kind of
trap-door.
Through this the king was to escape the next night, and,
hidden by the black covering of the scaffold, was to change