Essential Novelists - Alexandre Dumas. Alexandre Dumas

young man departed, laughing at the joke, which he thought he alone could comprehend.

      “Amuse yourself well!” replied Bonacieux, in a sepulchral tone.

      But d’Artagnan was too far off to hear him; and if he had heard him in the disposition of mind he then enjoyed, he certainly would not have remarked it.

      He took his way toward the hotel of M. de Treville; his visit of the day before, it is to be remembered, had been very short and very little explicative.

      He found Treville in a joyful mood. He had thought the king and queen charming at the ball. It is true the cardinal had been particularly ill-tempered. He had retired at one o’clock under the pretense of being indisposed. As to their Majesties, they did not return to the Louvre till six o’clock in the morning.

      “Now,” said Treville, lowering his voice, and looking into every corner of the apartment to see if they were alone, “now let us talk about yourself, my young friend; for it is evident that your happy return has something to do with the joy of the king, the triumph of the queen, and the humiliation of his Eminence. You must look out for yourself.”

      “What have I to fear,” replied d’Artagnan, “as long as I shall have the luck to enjoy the favor of their Majesties?”

      “Everything, believe me. The cardinal is not the man to forget a mystification until he has settled account with the mystifier; and the mystifier appears to me to have the air of being a certain young Gascon of my acquaintance.”

      “Do you believe that the cardinal is as well posted as yourself, and knows that I have been to London?”

      “The devil! You have been to London! Was it from London you brought that beautiful diamond that glitters on your finger? Beware, my dear d’Artagnan! A present from an enemy is not a good thing. Are there not some Latin verses upon that subject? Stop!”

      “Yes, doubtless,” replied d’Artagnan, who had never been able to cram the first rudiments of that language into his head, and who had by his ignorance driven his master to despair, “yes, doubtless there is one.”

      “There certainly is one,” said M. de Treville, who had a tincture of literature, “and Monsieur de Benserade was quoting it to me the other day. Stop a minute—ah, this is it: ‘Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes,’ which means, ‘Beware of the enemy who makes you presents.”

      “This diamond does not come from an enemy, monsieur,” replied d’Artagnan, “it comes from the queen.”

      “From the queen! Oh, oh!” said M. de Treville. “Why, it is indeed a true royal jewel, which is worth a thousand pistoles if it is worth a denier. By whom did the queen send you this jewel?”

      “She gave it to me herself.”

      “Where?”

      “In the room adjoining the chamber in which she changed her toilet.”

      “How?”

      “Giving me her hand to kiss.”

      “You have kissed the queen’s hand?” said M. de Treville, looking earnestly at d’Artagnan.

      “Her Majesty did me the honor to grant me that favor.”

      “And that in the presence of witnesses! Imprudent, thrice imprudent!”

      “No, monsieur, be satisfied; nobody saw her,” replied d’Artagnan, and he related to M. de Treville how the affair came to pass.

      “Oh, the women, the women!” cried the old soldier. “I know them by their romantic imagination. Everything that savors of mystery charms them. So you have seen the arm, that was all. You would meet the queen, and she would not know who you are?”

      “No; but thanks to this diamond,” replied the young man.

      “Listen,” said M. de Treville; “shall I give you counsel, good counsel, the counsel of a friend?”

      “You will do me honor, monsieur,” said d’Artagnan.

      “Well, then, off to the nearest goldsmith’s, and sell that diamond for the highest price you can get from him. However much of a Jew he may be, he will give you at least eight hundred pistoles. Pistoles have no name, young man, and that ring has a terrible one, which may betray him who wears it.”

      “Sell this ring, a ring which comes from my sovereign? Never!” said d’Artagnan.

      “Then, at least turn the gem inside, you silly fellow; for everybody must be aware that a cadet from Gascony does not find such stones in his mother’s jewel case.”

      “You think, then, I have something to dread?” asked d’Artagnan.

      “I mean to say, young man, that he who sleeps over a mine the match of which is already lighted, may consider himself in safety in comparison with you.”

      “The devil!” said d’Artagnan, whom the positive tone of M. de Treville began to disquiet, “the devil! What must I do?”

      “Above all things be always on your guard. The cardinal has a tenacious memory and a long arm; you may depend upon it, he will repay you by some ill turn.”

      “But of what sort?”

      “Eh! How can I tell? Has he not all the tricks of a demon at his command? The least that can be expected is that you will be arrested.”

      “What! Will they dare to arrest a man in his Majesty’s service?”

      “PARDIEU! They did not scruple much in the case of Athos. At all events, young man, rely upon one who has been thirty years at court. Do not lull yourself in security, or you will be lost; but, on the contrary—and it is I who say it—see enemies in all directions. If anyone seeks a quarrel with you, shun it, were it with a child of ten years old. If you are attacked by day or by night, fight, but retreat, without shame; if you cross a bridge, feel every plank of it with your foot, lest one should give way beneath you; if you pass before a house which is being built, look up, for fear a stone should fall upon your head; if you stay out late, be always followed by your lackey, and let your lackey be armed—if, by the by, you can be sure of your lackey. Mistrust everybody, your friend, your brother, your mistress—your mistress above all.”

      D’Artagnan blushed.

      “My mistress above all,” repeated he, mechanically; “and why her rather than another?”

      “Because a mistress is one of the cardinal’s favorite means; he has not one that is more expeditious. A woman will sell you for ten pistoles, witness Delilah. You are acquainted with the Scriptures?”

      D’Artagnan thought of the appointment Mme. Bonacieux had made with him for that very evening; but we are bound to say, to the credit of our hero, that the bad opinion entertained by M. de Treville of women in general, did not inspire him with the least suspicion of his pretty hostess.

      “But, A PROPOS,” resumed M. de Treville, “what has become of your three companions?”

      “I was about to ask you if you had heard any news of them?”

      “None, monsieur.”

      “Well, I left them on my road—Porthos at Chantilly, with a duel on his hands; Aramis at Crevecoeur, with a ball in his shoulder; and Athos at Amiens, detained by an accusation of coining.”

      “See there, now!” said M. de Treville; “and how the devil did you escape?”

      “By a miracle, monsieur, I must acknowledge, with a sword thrust in my breast, and by nailing the Comte de Wardes on the byroad to Calais, like a butterfly on a tapestry.”

      “There again! De Wardes, one of the cardinal’s men, a cousin of Rochefort! Stop, my friend, I have an idea.”

      “Speak, monsieur.”

      “In