The Three Musketeers. Александр Дюма

majesty to await your pleasure. Does your majesty require anything else? You have but to speak and you shall be obeyed!”

      “No, sir, no! It is not without reason that I have been named Louis the Just. Farewell, then, till tomorrow, sir! Farewell!”

      “May God preserve your majesty till then!”

      However little the king might sleep, M. de Treville slept even less. He had told the three musketeers and their comrade, to be with him at half-past six in the morning; and he took them with him without telling them anything, or making them any promise; confessing to them that their favour, as well as his own, was not worth more than the chances of a cast of dice.

      He left them at the foot of the staircase. If the king remained angry with them, they were to go away unnoticed; but, if his majesty consented to receive them, they would be ready at a call.

      On entering the king’s antechamber, M. de Treville found Chesnaye there, who informed him that M. de la Tremouille could not be found the evening before, and returned too late to be presented at the Louvre; that he had, in fact, but just arrived, and was now with the king.

      This circumstance much pleased M. de Treville, who was certain that nothing could come between M. de la Tremouille’s deposition, and his own audience. Scarcely, indeed, had ten minutes elapsed before the door of the king’s cabinet opened, and de Treville saw M. de la Tremouille come out. The duke immediately said to him,

      “M. de Treville, his majesty sent for me; to inquire into the affair that happened yesterday morning at my hotel. I have told him the truth, that the fault lay with my people, and that I was ready to make you my excuses. As I have met you, will you now receive them, and do me the favour always to consider me as one of your friends!”

      “Sir,” said M. de Treville, “I was so convinced of your loyalty, that I did not wish for any other defender with his majesty than yourself. I see that I did not deceive myself; and I thank you that there is still one man in France, of whom I may say what I have said of you, without danger, deception, or mistake.”

      “It is well! it is well!” said the king, who had heard all these compliments. “Only tell him, Treville, since he wishes for your friendship, that I also wish for his, but that he neglects me; that it is just three years since I have seen him; and that he only comes to a levee when invited. Tell him this for me; for those are the kind of things which a king cannot say for himself!”

      “Thanks, sire! thanks!” exclaimed the duke. “But let me assure your majesty that it is not those whom you see every day (I do not refer to M. de Treville) who are the most devoted to you.”

      “Ah! you heard what I said! So much the better, duke! so much the better!” said the king, advancing to the door. “Ah! it is you, Treville! where are your musketeers? I commanded you the day before yesterday to bring them! Why are they not here?”

      “They are below, sire, and with your permission, Chesnaye will call them up.”

      “Yes, yes! let them come directly; it will soon be eight o’clock, and at nine I have an appointment. Go, duke! and, above all things, forget not to return. Come in, Treville!”

      The Duke bowed and departed. The moment that he opened the door, the three musketeers and d’Artagnan conducted by Chesnaye, appeared at the top of the stairs.

      “Come, my brave fellows!” said the king, “I must scold you!”

      The musketeers approached, with obeisances, d’Artagnan following behind.

      “What! the devil!” continued the king, “seven of his eminence’s guards regularly doubled up by you four in two days! It is too many, gentlemen; it is too many: at this rate, his eminence will have to renew his regiment in three weeks, and I shall have to enforce the edicts in their full rigour. I say nothing of one by chance; but seven in two days, I repeat it, are too many, a great deal too many!”

      “But your majesty perceives that they have come in sorrow and repentance, to excuse themselves.”

      “In sorrow and repentance! hum!” said the king. “I do not put much trust in their hypocritical faces. There is, above all, a Gascon face in the background there! Come here, you, sir!”

      D’Artagnan, who comprehended that the compliment was addressed to him, approached his majesty with a desperately desponding look.

      “What! you told me it was a young man! But this is a mere boy, M. de Treville, quite a boy. Did he give that terrible wound to Jussac?”

      “Yes! And those two beautiful sword thrusts to Bernajoux,” said M. de Treville.

      “Really!”

      “Without reckoning,” said Athos, “that if he had not rescued me from the hands of Biscarrat, I should certainly not have had the honour of paying my very humble reverence to your majesty.”

      “Why, M. de Treville, this Bearnese must be the very devil. Ventre saint-gris, as the king, my sire, would have said, at this rate many doublets must be riddled, and lots of swords broken. Now, the Gascons are always poor, are they not?”

      “Sire, I must say that they have found no mines of gold in their mountains, though the Almighty owed them that recompense for the manner in which they supported the cause of your father.”

      “Which is to say, is it not, Treville, that it was the Gascons who made me king, as I am my father’s son? Well, let it be so; I will not contradict it. La Chesnaye, go and see if, by rummaging my pockets, you can find forty pistoles; and if you find them, bring them to me.

      “And now let me hear, young man, with your hand on your heart, how this affair happened?”

      D’Artagnan told all the circumstances of the adventure; how, not being able to sleep, from the expectation of seeing his majesty, he went to his friend’s house three hours before the time of the audience; how they went together to the tennis-court! and how, on account of the fear he betrayed of being struck upon his face by the ball, he had been rallied by Bernajoux, who had narrowly escaped paying for his raillery with his life; and M. de Tremouille, who was innocent, with the loss of his hotel.

      “It is exactly so,” murmured the king; “yes, it is exactly as the duke recounted the affair. Poor cardinal! Seven men in two days, and seven of his most valued soldiers, too! But this is sufficient, gentlemen; do you understand? You have taken your revenge for the Rue Ferou, and more than enough. You ought now to be satisfied.”

      “So we are, if your majesty is,” said Treville.

      “Yes! I am,” replied the king; and taking a handful of gold from the hand of Chesnaye, and putting it into d’Artagnan’s, he added, “there is a proof of my satisfaction.”

      At this period, the independent notions which are now current were not yet in fashion. A gentleman received money from the king’s hand, without being humiliated. D’Artagnan, therefore, put the forty pistoles into his pocket, without any other ceremony than that of warmly thanking his majesty for the gift.

      “There,” said the king, examining his watch, “now that it is half-past eight, retire. I have told you that I have an appointment at nine. Thanks for your devotion, gentlemen! I may rely upon it, may I not?”

      “Oh! sire!” replied the four at once, “we will allow ourselves to be cut in pieces in your defence!”

      “Well! well! But it will be much better to remain whole, and you will be far more useful to me in that state. Treville,” added the king, in a low voice, as the others retired, “as you have no commission vacant in the musketeers, and as we have decided that it should be necessary to pass a certain probation before entering that corps, place this young man in your brother-in-law, M. des Essarts’, company of guards. Ah! I quite enjoy the thought of the grimace that the cardinal will make: he will be furious; but I do not care, I am quite right this time.”

      The king bowed to Treville, and the latter joined his musketeers, whom he found sharing the forty pistoles which his majesty had given d’Artagnan.

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