de la Chevrette.”
“And I shall be at the convent of Jesuits; from six in the
morning to eight at night come by the door. From eight in
the evening until six in the morning come in by the window.”
“Adieu, dear friend.”
“Oh, I can’t let you go so! I will go with you.” And he took
his sword and cloak.
“He wants to be sure that I go away,” said D’Artagnan to
himself.
Aramis whistled for Bazin, but Bazin was asleep in the
ante-chamber, and Aramis was obliged to shake him by the ear
to awake him.
Bazin stretched his arms, rubbed his eyes, and tried to go
to sleep again.
“Come, come, sleepy head; quick, the ladder!”
“But,” said Bazin, yawning portentously, “the ladder is
still at the window.”
“The other one, the gardener’s. Didn’t you see that Monsieur
d’Artagnan mounted with difficulty? It will be even more
difficult to descend.”
D’Artagnan was about to assure Aramis that he could descend
easily, when an idea came into his head which silenced him.
Bazin uttered a profound sigh and went out to look for the
ladder. Presently a good, solid, wooden ladder was placed
against the window.
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“Now then,” said D’Artagnan, “this is something like; this
is a means of communication. A woman could go up a ladder
like that.”
Aramis’s searching look seemed to seek his friend’s thought
even at the bottom of his heart, but D’Artagnan sustained
the inquisition with an air of admirable simplicity.
Besides, at that moment he put his foot on the first step of
the ladder and began his descent. In a moment he was on the
ground. Bazin remained at the window.
“Stay there,” said Aramis; “I shall return immediately.”
The two friends went toward the shed. At their approach
Planchet came out leading the two horses.
“That is good to see,” said Aramis. “There is a servant
active and vigilant, not like that lazy fellow Bazin, who is
no longer good for anything since he became connected with
the church. Follow us, Planchet; we shall continue our
conversation to the end of the village.”
They traversed the width of the village, talking of
indifferent things, then as they reached the last houses:
“Go, then, dear friend,” said Aramis, “follow your own
career. Fortune lavishes her smiles upon you; do not let her
flee from your embrace. As for me, I remain in my humility
and indolence. Adieu!”
“Thus ’tis quite decided,” said D’Artagnan, “that what I
have to offer to you does not tempt you?”
“On the contrary, it would tempt me were I any other man,”
rejoined Aramis; “but I repeat, I am made up of
contradictions. What I hate to-day I adore to-morrow, and
vice versa. You see that I cannot, like you, for instance,
settle on any fixed plan.”
“Thou liest, subtile one,” said D’Artagnan to himself. “Thou
alone, on the contrary, knowest how to choose thy object and
to gain it stealthily.”
The friends embraced. They descended into the plain by the
ladder. Planchet met them hard by the shed. D’Artagnan
jumped into the saddle, then the old companions in arms
again shook hands. D’Artagnan and Planchet spurred their
steeds and took the road to Paris.
But after he had gone about two hundred steps D’Artagnan
stopped short, alighted, threw the bridle of his horse over
the arm of Planchet and took the pistols from his saddle-bow
to fasten them to his girdle.
“What’s the matter?” asked Planchet.
“This is the matter: be he ever so cunning he shall never
say I was his dupe. Stand here, don’t stir, turn your back
to the road and wait for me.”
Having thus spoken, D’Artagnan cleared the ditch by the
roadside and crossed the plain so as to wind around the
village. He had observed between the house that Madame de
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Longueville inhabited and the convent of the Jesuits, an
open space surrounded by a hedge.
The moon had now risen and he could see well enough to
retrace his road.
He reached the hedge and hid himself behind it; in passing
by the house where the scene which we have related took