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.”
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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