he threw himself on his father’s neck.
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“Look, my lord cardinal,” said Aramis, “would it not have
been a pity to have separated men who love each other as we
love? Gentlemen,” he continued, addressing the cavaliers,
who became more and more numerous every instant; “gentlemen,
encircle his eminence, that you may show him the greater
honor. He will, indeed give us the favor of his company; you
will, I hope, be grateful for it; Porthos, do not lose sight
of his eminence.”
Aramis then joined Athos and D’Artagnan, who were consulting
together.
“Come,” said D’Artagnan, after a conference of five minutes’
duration, “let us begin our journey.”
“Where are we to go?” asked Porthos.
“To your house, dear Porthos, at Pierrefonds; your fine
chateau is worthy of affording its princely hospitality to
his eminence; it is, likewise, well situated — neither too
near Paris, nor too far from it; we can establish a
communication between it and the capital with great
facility. Come, my lord, you shall be treated like a prince,
as you are.”
“A fallen prince!” exclaimed Mazarin, piteously.
“The chances of war,” said Athos, “are many, but be assured
we shall take no improper advantage of them.”
“No, but we shall make use of them,” said D’Artagnan.
The rest of the night was employed by these cavaliers in
traveling with the wonderful rapidity of former days.
Mazarin, still sombre and pensive, permitted himself to be
dragged along in this way; it looked a race of phantoms. At
dawn twelve leagues had been passed without drawing rein;
half the escort were exhausted and several horses fell down.
“Horses, nowadays, are not what they were formerly,”
observed Porthos; “everything degenerates.”
“I have sent Grimaud to Dammartin,” said Aramis. “He is to
bring us five fresh horses — one for his eminence, four for
us. We, at least, must keep close to monseigneur; the rest
of the start will rejoin us later. Once beyond Saint Denis
we shall have nothing to fear.”
Grimaud, in fact, brought back five horses. The nobleman to
whom he applied, being a friend of Porthos, was very ready,
not to sell them, as was proposed, but to lend them. Ten
minutes later the escort stopped at Ermenonville, but the
four friends went on with well sustained ardor, guarding
Mazarin carefully. At noon they rode into the avenue of
Pierrefonds.
“Ah!” said Mousqueton, who had ridden by the side of
D’Artagnan without speaking a word on the journey, “you may
think what you will, sir, but I can breathe now for the
first time since my departure from Pierrefonds;” and he put
his horse to a gallop to announce to the other servants the
arrival of Monsieur du Vallon and his friends.
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“We are four of us,” said D’Artagnan; “we must relieve each
other in mounting guard over my lord and each of us must
watch three hours at a time. Athos is going to examine the
castle, which it will be necessary to render impregnable in
case of siege; Porthos will see to the provisions and Aramis
to the troops of the garrison. That is to say, Athos will be
chief engineer, Porthos purveyor-in-general, and Aramis
governor of the fortress.”
Meanwhile, they gave up to Mazarin the handsomest room in
the chateau.
“Gentlemen,” he said, when he was in his room, “you do not
expect, I presume, to keep me here a long time incognito?”
“No, my lord,” replied the Gascon; “on the contrary, we
think of announcing very soon that we have you here.”
“Then you will be besieged.”
“We expect it.”
“And what shall you do?”
“Defend ourselves. Were the late Cardinal Richelieu alive he
would tell you a certain story of the Bastion Saint Gervais,
which we four, with our four lackeys and twelve dead men,
held out against a whole army.”
“Such feats, sir, are done once — and never repeated.”
“However, nowadays there’s no need of so much heroism.
To-morrow the army of Paris will be summoned, the day after
it will be here! The field of battle, instead, therefore, of
being at Saint Denis or at Charenton, will be near Compiegne