Essential Novelists - Alexandre Dumas. Alexandre Dumas

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ recollect.”

      “Then I paid the host six.”

      “What a brute of a host! Why did you give him six pistoles?”

      “You told me to give them to him.”

      “It is true; I am too good-natured. In brief, how much remains?”

      “Twenty-five pistoles,” said d’Artagnan.

      “And I,” said Athos, taking some small change from his pocket, “I—”

      “You? Nothing!”

      “My faith! So little that it is not worth reckoning with the general stock.”

      “Now, then, let us calculate how much we posses in all.”

      “Porthos?”

      “Thirty crowns.”

      “Aramis?”

      “Ten pistoles.”

      “And you, d’Artagnan?”

      “Twenty-five.”

      “That makes in all?” said Athos.

      “Four hundred and seventy-five livres,” said d’Artagnan, who reckoned like Archimedes.

      “On our arrival in Paris, we shall still have four hundred, besides the harnesses,” said Porthos.

      “But our troop horses?” said Aramis.

      “Well, of the four horses of our lackeys we will make two for the masters, for which we will draw lots. With the four hundred livres we will make the half of one for one of the unmounted, and then we will give the turnings out of our pockets to d’Artagnan, who has a steady hand, and will go and play in the first gaming house we come to. There!”

      “Let us dine, then,” said Porthos; “it is getting cold.”

      The friends, at ease with regard to the future, did honor to the repast, the remains of which were abandoned to Mousqueton, Bazin, Planchet, and Grimaud.

      On arriving in Paris, d’Artagnan found a letter from M. de Treville, which informed him that, at his request, the king had promised that he should enter the company of the Musketeers.

      As this was the height of d’Artagnan’s worldly ambition—apart, be it well understood, from his desire of finding Mme. Bonacieux—he ran, full of joy, to seek his comrades, whom he had left only half an hour before, but whom he found very sad and deeply preoccupied. They were assembled in council at the residence of Athos, which always indicated an event of some gravity. M. de Treville had intimated to them his Majesty’s fixed intention to open the campaign on the first of May, and they must immediately prepare their outfits.

      The four philosophers looked at one another in a state of bewilderment. M. de Treville never jested in matters relating to discipline.

      “And what do you reckon your outfit will cost?” said d’Artagnan.

      “Oh, we can scarcely say. We have made our calculations with Spartan economy, and we each require fifteen hundred livres.”

      “Four times fifteen makes sixty—six thousand livres,” said Athos.

      “It seems to me,” said d’Artagnan, “with a thousand livres each—I do not speak as a Spartan, but as a procurator—”

      This word PROCURATOR roused Porthos. “Stop,” said he, “I have an idea.”

      “Well, that’s something, for I have not the shadow of one,” said Athos coolly; “but as to d’Artagnan, gentlemen, the idea of belonging to OURS has driven him out of his senses. A thousand livres! For my part, I declare I want two thousand.”

      “Four times two makes eight,” then said Aramis; “it is eight thousand that we want to complete our outfits, toward which, it is true, we have already the saddles.”

      “Besides,” said Athos, waiting till d’Artagnan, who went to thank Monsieur de Treville, had shut the door, “besides, there is that beautiful ring which beams from the finger of our friend. What the devil! D’Artagnan is too good a comrade to leave his brothers in embarrassment while he wears the ransom of a king on his finger.”

       29 HUNTING FOR THE EQUIPMENTS

      ––––––––

      THE MOST PREOCCUPIED of the four friends was certainly d’Artagnan, although he, in his quality of Guardsman, would be much more easily equipped than Messieurs the Musketeers, who were all of high rank; but our Gascon cadet was, as may have been observed, of a provident and almost avaricious character, and with that (explain the contradiction) so vain as almost to rival Porthos. To this preoccupation of his vanity, d’Artagnan at this moment joined an uneasiness much less selfish. Notwithstanding all his inquiries respecting Mme. Bonacieux, he could obtain no intelligence of her. M. de Treville had spoken of her to the queen. The queen was ignorant where the mercer’s young wife was, but had promised to have her sought for; but this promise was very vague and did not at all reassure d’Artagnan.

      Athos did not leave his chamber; he made up his mind not to take a single step to equip himself.

      “We have still fifteen days before us,” said he to his friends, “well, if at the end of a fortnight I have found nothing, or rather if nothing has come to find me, as I, too good a Catholic to kill myself with a pistol bullet, I will seek a good quarrel with four of his Eminence’s Guards or with eight Englishmen, and I will fight until one of them has killed me, which, considering the number, cannot fail to happen. It will then be said of me that I died for the king; so that I shall have performed my duty without the expense of an outfit.”

      Porthos continued to walk about with his hands behind him, tossing his head and repeating, “I shall follow up on my idea.”

      Aramis, anxious and negligently dressed, said nothing.

      It may be seen by these disastrous details that desolation reigned in the community.

      The lackeys on their part, like the coursers of Hippolytus, shared the sadness of their masters. Mousqueton collected a store of crusts; Bazin, who had always been inclined to devotion, never quit the churches; Planchet watched the flight of flies; and Grimaud, whom the general distress could not induce to break the silence imposed by his master, heaved sighs enough to soften the stones.

      The three friends—for, as we have said, Athos had sworn not to stir a foot to equip himself—went out early in the morning, and returned late at night. They wandered about the streets, looking at the pavement as if to see whether the passengers had not left a purse behind them. They might have been supposed to be following tracks, so observant were they wherever they went. When they met they looked desolately at one another, as much as to say, “Have you found anything?”

      However, СКАЧАТЬ