Twenty Years Later by Dumas, Alexandre. Part two

and having snatched a hasty dinner they continued their

journey to Louvres. Here they found only one inn, in which

was consumed a liqueur which preserves its reputation to our

time and which is still made in that town.

“Let us alight here,” said Athos. “D’Artagnan will not have

let slip an opportunity of drinking a glass of this liqueur,

and at the same time leaving some trace of himself.”

They went into the town and asked for two glasses of

liqueur, at the counter — as their friends must have done

before them. The counter was covered with a plate of pewter;

upon this plate was written with the point of a large pin:

“Rueil . . . D . .”

“They went to Rueil,” cried Aramis.

“Let us go to Rueil,” said Athos.

“It is to throw ourselves into the wolf’s jaws,” said

Aramis.

“Had I been as great a friend of Jonah as I am of D’Artagnan

I should have followed him even into the inside of the whale

itself; and you would have done the same, Aramis.”

“Certainly — but you make me out better than I am, dear

count. Had I been alone I should scarcely have gone to Rueil

without great caution. But where you go, I go.”

Page 542

Dumas, Alexandre – Twenty Years After

They then set off for Rueil. Here the deputies of the

parliament had just arrived, in order to enter upon those

famous conferences which were to last three weeks, and

produced eventually that shameful peace, at the conclusion

of which the prince was arrested. Rueil was crowded with

advocates, presidents and councillors, who came from the

Parisians, and, on the side of the court, with officers and

guards; it was therefore easy, in the midst of this

confusion, to remain as unobserved as any one might wish;

besides, the conferences implied a truce, and to arrest two

gentlemen, even Frondeurs, at this time, would have been an

attack on the rights of the people.

The two friends mingled with the crowd and fancied that

every one was occupied with the same thought that tormented

them. They expected to hear some mention made of D’Artagnan

or of Porthos, but every one was engrossed by articles and

reforms. It was the advice of Athos to go straight to the

minister.

“My friend,” said Aramis, “take care; our safety lies in our

obscurity. If we were to make ourselves known we should be

sent to rejoin our friends in some deep ditch, from which

the devil himself could not take us out. Let us try not to

find them out by accident, but from our notions. Arrested at

Compiegne, they have been carried to Rueil; at Rueil they

have been questioned by the cardinal, who has either kept

them near him or sent them to Saint Germain. As to the

Bastile, they are not there, though the Bastile is

especially for the Frondeurs. They are not dead, for the

death of D’Artagnan would make a sensation. As for Porthos,

I believe him to be eternal, like God, although less

patient. Do not let us despond, but wait at Rueil, for my

conviction is that they are at Rueil. But what ails you? You

are pale.”

“It is this,” answered Athos, with a trembling voice.

“I remember that at the Castle of Rueil the Cardinal

Richelieu had some horrible `oubliettes’ constructed.”

“Oh! never fear,” said Aramis. “Richelieu was a gentleman,

our equal in birth, our superior in position. He could, like

the king, touch the greatest of us on the head, and touching

them make such heads shake on their shoulders. But Mazarin

is a low-born rogue, who can at the most take us by the

collar, like an archer. Be calm — for I am sure that

D’Artagnan and Porthos are at Rueil, alive and well.”

“But,” resumed Athos, “I recur to my first proposal. I know

no better means than to act with candor. I shall seek, not

Mazarin, but the queen, and say to her, `Madame, restore to

us your two servants and our two friends.'”

Aramis shook his head.

“‘Tis a last resource, but let us not employ it till it is

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