ready,” and he put it back again into his pocket.
“I understand,” said the child, with that jeering smile
which marks especially the “gamin de Paris.” “Well, we must
wait.”
They had not long to wait. Five minutes afterward Bazin set
off on a full trot, urging on his horse by the blows of a
parapluie, which he was in the habit of using instead of a
riding whip.
Scarcely had he turned the corner of the Rue de la Juiverie
when the boy rushed after him like a bloodhound on full
scent.
Before ten minutes had elapsed the child returned.
“Well!” said D’Artagnan.
“Well!” answered the boy, “the thing is done.”
“Where is he gone?”
“The half-pistole is for me?”
“Doubtless, answer me.”
“I want to see it. Give it me, that I may see it is not
false.
“There it is.”
The child put the piece of money into his pocket.
“And now, where is he gone?” inquired D’Artagnan.
“He is gone to Noisy.”
“How dost thou know?”
“Ah, faith! there was no great cunning necessary. I knew the
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Dumas, Alexandre – Twenty Years After
horse he rode; it belonged to the butcher, who lets it out
now and then to M. Bazin. Now I thought that the butcher
would not let his horse out like that without knowing where
it was going. And he answered `that Monsieur Bazin went to
Noisy.’ ‘Tis his custom. He goes two or three times a week.”
“Dost thou know Noisy well?”
“I think so, truly; my nurse lives there.”
“Is there a convent at Noisy?”
“Isn’t there a great and grand one — the convent of
Jesuits?”
“What is thy name?”
“Friquet.”
D’Artagnan wrote the child’s name in his tablets.
“Please, sir,” said the boy, “do you think I can gain any
more half-pistoles in any way?”
“Perhaps,” replied D’Artagnan.
And having got out all he wanted, he paid for the hypocras,
which he did not drink, and went quickly back to the Rue
Tiquetonne.
8
How D’Artagnan, on going to a Distance to discover Aramis,
discovers his old Friend on Horseback behind his own
Planchet.
On entering the hotel D’Artagnan saw a man sitting in a
corner by the fire. It was Planchet, but so completely
transformed, thanks to the old clothes that the departing
husband had left behind, that D’Artagnan himself could
hardly recognize him. Madeleine introduced him in presence
of all the servants. Planchet addressed the officer with a
fine Flemish phrase; the officer replied in words that
belonged to no language at all, and the bargain was
concluded; Madeleine’s brother entered D’Artagnan’s service.
The plan adopted by D’Artagnan was soon perfected. He
resolved not to reach Noisy in the day, for fear of being
recognized; he had therefore plenty of time before him, for
Noisy is only three or four leagues from Paris, on the road
to Meaux.
He began his day by breakfasting substantially — a bad
beginning when one wants to employ the head, but an
excellent precaution when one wants to work the body; and
about two o’clock he had his two horses saddled, and
followed by Planchet he quitted Paris by the Barriere de la
Villete. A most active search was still prosecuted in the
house near the Hotel de la Chevrette for the discovery of
Planchet.
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Dumas, Alexandre – Twenty Years After
At about a league and a half from the city, D’Artagnan,
finding that in his impatience he had set out too soon,
stopped to give the horses breathing time. The inn was full
of disreputable looking people, who seemed as if they were
on the point of commencing some nightly expedition. A man,
wrapped in a cloak, appeared at the door, but seeing a
stranger he beckoned to his companions, and two men who were
drinking in the inn went out to speak to him.
D’Artagnan, on his side, went up to the landlady, praised
her wine — which was a horrible production from the country
of Montreuil — and heard from her that there were only two
houses of importance in the village; one of these belonged
to the Archbishop of Paris, and was at that time the abode