“Yes; Stuart begged this favor and Harrison consented. Under
pretense that he’s a king it appears he cannot dress or
undress without assistance.”
“Really, captain,” said D’Artagnan, determined to continue
on the laudatory tack on which he had commenced, “the more I
listen to you the more surprised I am at the easy and
elegant manner in which you speak French. You have lived
three years in Paris? May I ask what you were doing there?”
“My father, who is a merchant, placed me with his
correspondent, who in turn sent his son to join our house in
London.”
“Were you pleased with Paris, sir?”
“Yes, but you are much in want of a revolution like our own
— not against your king, who is a mere child, but against
that lazar of an Italian, the queen’s favorite.”
“Ah! I am quite of your opinion, sir, and we should soon
make an end of Mazarin if we had only a dozen officers like
yourself, without prejudices, vigilant and incorruptible.”
“But,” said the officer, “I thought you were in his service
and that it was he who sent you to General Cromwell.”
“That is to say I am in the king’s service, and that knowing
he wanted to send some one to England, I solicited the
appointment, so great was my desire to know the man of
genius who now governs the three kingdoms. So that when he
proposed to us to draw our swords in honor of old England
you see how we snapped up the proposition.”
“Yes, I know that you charged by the side of Mordaunt.”
“On his right and left, sir. Ah! there’s another brave and
excellent young man.”
“Do you know him?” asked the officer.
“Yes, very well. Monsieur du Vallon and myself came from
France with him.”
“It appears, too, you kept him waiting a long time at
Boulogne.”
“What would you have? I was like you, and had a king in
keeping.”
“Aha!” said Groslow; “what king?”
“Our own, to be sure, the little one — Louis XIV.”
“And how long had you to take care of him?”
Page 430
Dumas, Alexandre – Twenty Years After
“Three nights; and, by my troth, I shall always remember
those three nights with a certain pleasure.”
“How do you mean?”
“I mean that my friends, officers in the guards and
mousquetaires, came to keep me company and we passed the
night in feasting, drinking, dicing.”
“Ah true,” said the Englishman, with a sigh; “you Frenchmen
are born boon companions.”
“And don’t you play, too, when you are on guard?”
“Never,” said the Englishman.
“In that case you must be horribly bored, and have my
sympathy.”
“The fact is, I look to my turn for keeping guard with
horror. It’s tiresome work to keep awake a whole night.”
“Yes, but with a jovial partner and dice, and guineas
clinking on the cloth, the night passes like a dream. You
don’t like playing, then?”
“On the contrary, I do.”
“Lansquenet, for instance?”
“Devoted to it. I used to play almost every night in
France.”
“And since your return to England?”
“I have not handled a card or dice-box.”
“I sincerely pity you,” said D’Artagnan, with an air of
profound compassion.
“Look here,” said the Englishman.
“Well?”
“To-morrow I am on guard.”
“In Stuart’s room?”
“Yes; come and pass the night with me.”
“Impossible!”
“Impossible! why so?”
“I play with Monsieur du Vallon every night. Sometimes we
don’t go to bed at all!”
“Well, what of that?”
“Why, he would be annoyed if I did not play with him.”
“Does he play well?”
“I have seen him lose as much as two thousand pistoles,
Page 431
Dumas, Alexandre – Twenty Years After
laughing all the while till the tears rolled down.”
“Bring him with you, then.”
“But how about our prisoners?”
“Let your servants guard them.”
“Yes, and give them a chance of escaping,” said D’Artagnan.
“Why, one of them is a rich lord from Touraine and the other
a knight of Malta, of noble family. We have arranged the
ransom of each of them — 2,000 on arriving in France. We
are reluctant to leave for a single moment men whom our