Essential Novelists - Alexandre Dumas. Alexandre Dumas

door into the passage, ascended the stairs as quietly as possible, and entered d’Artagnan’s chambers.

      Once there, for greater security, the young man barricaded the door. They both approached the window, and through a slit in the shutter they saw Bonacieux talking with a man in a cloak.

      At sight of this man, d’Artagnan started, and half drawing his sword, sprang toward the door.

      It was the man of Meung.

      “What are you going to do?” cried Mme. Bonacieux; “you will ruin us all!”

      “But I have sworn to kill that man!” said d’Artagnan.

      “Your life is devoted from this moment, and does not belong to you. In the name of the queen I forbid you to throw yourself into any peril which is foreign to that of your journey.”

      “And do you command nothing in your own name?”

      “In my name,” said Mme. Bonacieux, with great emotion, “in my name I beg you! But listen; they appear to be speaking of me.”

      D’Artagnan drew near the window, and lent his ear.

      M Bonacieux had opened his door, and seeing the apartment, had returned to the man in the cloak, whom he had left alone for an instant.

      “She is gone,” said he; “she must have returned to the Louvre.”

      “You are sure,” replied the stranger, “that she did not suspect the intentions with which you went out?”

      “No,” replied Bonacieux, with a self-sufficient air, “she is too superficial a woman.”

      “Is the young Guardsman at home?”

      “I do not think he is; as you see, his shutter is closed, and you can see no light shine through the chinks of the shutters.”

      “All the same, it is well to be certain.”

      “How so?”

      “By knocking at his door. Go.”

      “I will ask his servant.”

      Bonacieux re-entered the house, passed through the same door that had afforded a passage for the two fugitives, went up to d’Artagnan’s door, and knocked.

      No one answered. Porthos, in order to make a greater display, had that evening borrowed Planchet. As to d’Artagnan, he took care not to give the least sign of existence.

      The moment the hand of Bonacieux sounded on the door, the two young people felt their hearts bound within them.

      “There is nobody within,” said Bonacieux.

      “Never mind. Let us return to your apartment. We shall be safer there than in the doorway.”

      “Ah, my God!” whispered Mme. Bonacieux, “we shall hear no more.”

      “On the contrary,” said d’Artagnan, “we shall hear better.”

      D’Artagnan raised the three or four boards which made his chamber another ear of Dionysius, spread a carpet on the floor, went upon his knees, and made a sign to Mme. Bonacieux to stoop as he did toward the opening.

      “You are sure there is nobody there?” said the stranger.

      “I will answer for it,” said Bonacieux.

      “And you think that your wife—”

      “Has returned to the Louvre.”

      “Without speaking to anyone but yourself?”

      “I am sure of it.”

      “That is an important point, do you understand?”

      “Then the news I brought you is of value?”

      “The greatest, my dear Bonacieux; I don’t conceal this from you.”

      “Then the cardinal will be pleased with me?”

      “I have no doubt of it.”

      “The great cardinal!”

      “Are you sure, in her conversation with you, that your wife mentioned no names?”

      “I think not.”

      “She did not name Madame de Chevreuse, the Duke of Buckingham, or Madame de Vernet?”

      “No; she only told me she wished to send me to London to serve the interests of an illustrious personage.”

      “The traitor!” murmured Mme. Bonacieux.

      “Silence!” said d’Artagnan, taking her hand, which, without thinking of it, she abandoned to him.

      “Never mind,” continued the man in the cloak; “you were a fool not to have pretended to accept the mission. You would then be in present possession of the letter. The state, which is now threatened, would be safe, and you—”

      “And I?”

      “Well you—the cardinal would have given you letters of nobility.”

      “Did he tell you so?”

      “Yes, I know that he meant to afford you that agreeable surprise.”

      “Be satisfied,” replied Bonacieux; “my wife adores me, and there is yet time.”

      “The ninny!” murmured Mme. Bonacieux.

      “Silence!” said d’Artagnan, pressing her hand more closely.

      “How is there still time?” asked the man in the cloak.

      “I go to the Louvre; I ask for Mme. Bonacieux; I say that I have reflected; I renew the affair; I obtain the letter, and I run directly to the cardinal.”

      “Well, go quickly! I will return soon to learn the result of your trip.”

      The stranger went out.

      “Infamous!” said Mme. Bonacieux, addressing this epithet to her husband.

      “Silence!” said d’Artagnan, pressing her hand still more warmly.

      A terrible howling interrupted these reflections of d’Artagnan and Mme. Bonacieux. It was her husband, who had discovered the disappearance of the moneybag, and was crying “Thieves!”

      “Oh, my God!” cried Mme. Bonacieux, “he will rouse the whole quarter.”

      Bonacieux called a long time; but as such cries, on account of their frequency, brought nobody in the Rue des Fossoyeurs, and as lately the mercer’s house had a bad name, finding that nobody came, he went out continuing to call, his voice being heard fainter and fainter as he went in the direction of the Rue du Bac.

      “Now he is gone, it is your turn to get out,” said Mme. Bonacieux. “Courage, my friend, but above all, prudence, and think what you owe to the queen.”

      “To her and to you!” cried d’Artagnan. “Be satisfied, beautiful Constance. I shall become worthy of her gratitude; but shall I likewise return worthy of your love?”

      The young woman only replied by the beautiful glow which mounted to her cheeks. A few seconds afterward d’Artagnan also went out enveloped in a large cloak, which ill-concealed the sheath of a long sword.

      Mme. Bonacieux followed him with her eyes, with that long, fond look with which he had turned the angle of the street, she fell on her knees, and clasping her hands, “Oh, my God,” cried she, “protect the queen, protect me!”

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