open it comes to the same thing. Have you provided yourself
with money? I assure you I intend to play the devil’s game
to-night.”
D’Artagnan rattled the gold in his pockets.
“Very good,” said Groslow, and opened the door of the room.
“I will show you the way,” and he went in first.
D’Artagnan turned to look at his friends. Porthos was
perfectly indifferent; Athos, pale, but resolute; Aramis was
wiping a slight moisture from his brow.
The eight guards were at their posts. Four in the king’s
room, two at the door between the rooms and two at that by
which the friends had entered. Athos smiled when he saw
their bare swords; he felt it was no longer to be a
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butchery, but a fight, and he resumed his usual good humor.
Charles was perceived through the door, lying dressed upon
his bed, at the head of which Parry was seated, reading in a
low voice a chapter from the Bible.
A candle of coarse tallow on a black table lighted up the
handsome and resigned face of the king and that of his
faithful retainer, far less calm.
From time to time Parry stopped, thinking the king, whose
eyes were closed, was really asleep, but Charles would open
his eyes and say with a smile:
“Go on, my good Parry, I am listening.”
Groslow advanced to the door of the king’s room, replaced on
his head the hat he had taken off to receive his guests,
looked for a moment contemptuously at this simple, yet
touching scene, then turning to D’Artagnan, assumed an air
of triumph at what he had achieved.
“Capital!” cried the Gascon, “you would make a distinguished
general.”
“And do you think,” asked Groslow, “that Stuart will ever
escape while I am on guard?”
“No, to be sure,” replied D’Artagnan; “unless, forsooth, the
sky rains friends upon him.”
Groslow’s face brightened.
It is impossible to say whether Charles, who kept his eyes
constantly closed, had noticed the insolence of the Puritan
captain, but the moment he heard the clear tone of
D’Artagnan’s voice his eyelids rose, in spite of himself.
Parry, too, started and stopped reading.
“What are you thinking about?” said the king; “go on, my
good Parry, unless you are tired.”
Parry resumed his reading.
On a table in the next room were lighted candles, cards, two
dice-boxes, and dice.
“Gentlemen,” said Groslow, “I beg you will take your places.
I will sit facing Stuart, whom I like so much to see,
especially where he now is, and you, Monsieur d’Artagnan,
opposite to me.”
Athos turned red with rage. D’Artagnan frowned at him.
“That’s it,” said D’Artagnan; “you, Monsieur le Comte de la
Fere, to the right of Monsieur Groslow. You, Chevalier
d’Herblay, to his left. Du Vallon next me. You’ll bet for me
and those gentlemen for Monsieur Groslow.”
By this arrangement D’Artagnan could nudge Porthos with his
knee and make signs with his eyes to Athos and Aramis.
At the names Comte de la Fere and Chevalier d’Herblay,
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Dumas, Alexandre – Twenty Years After
Charles opened his eyes, and raising his noble head, in
spite of himself, threw a glance at all the actors in the
scene.
At that moment Parry turned over several leaves of his Bible
and read with a loud voice this verse in Jeremiah:
“God said, `Hear ye the words of the prophets my servants,
whom I have sent unto you.”
The four friends exchanged glances. The words that Parry had
read assured them that their presence was understood by the
king and was assigned to its real motive. D’Artagnan’s eyes
sparkled with joy.
“You asked me just now if I was in funds,” said D’Artagnan,
placing some twenty pistoles upon the table. “Well, in my
turn I advise you to keep a sharp lookout on your treasure,
my dear Monsieur Groslow, for I can tell you we shall not
leave this without robbing you of it.”
“Not without my defending it,” said Groslow.
“So much the better,” said D’Artagnan. “Fight, my dear
captain, fight. You know or you don’t know, that that is
what we ask of you.”