The Man in the Iron Mask
M. de Gesvres’s Round.
D’Artagnan was little used to like that he had just experienced. He returned, irritated, to Nantes. Irritation, with this man, itself in attack, which people, hitherto, were they king, were they giants, had been able to resist. Trembling with rage, he to the castle, and asked an audience with the king. It might be about seven o’clock in the morning, and, since his at Nantes, the king had been an early riser. But on at the with which we are acquainted, D’Artagnan M. de Gesvres, who stopped him politely, telling him not to speak too loud and the king. “Is the king asleep?” said D’Artagnan. “Well, I will let him sleep. But about what o’clock do you he will rise?”
“Oh! in about two hours; his has been up all night.”
D’Artagnan took his again, to M. de Gesvres, and returned to his own apartments. He came at half-past nine, and was told that the king was at breakfast. “That will just me,” said D’Artagnan. “I will talk to the king while he is eating.”
M. de Brienne D’Artagnan that the king would not see any one at meal-time.
“But,” said D’Artagnan, looking at Brienne, “you do not know, perhaps, monsieur, that I have the of anywhere—and at any hour.”
Brienne took the captain’s hand kindly, and said, “Not at Nantes, dear Monsieur d’Artagnan. The king, in this journey, has everything.”
D’Artagnan, a little softened, asked about what o’clock the king would have his breakfast.
“We don’t know.”
“Eh?—don’t know! What that mean? You don’t know how much time the king to eating? It is an hour; and, if we admit that the air of the Loire an additional appetite, we will it to an hour and a half; that is enough, I think. I will wait where I am.”
“Oh! dear Monsieur d’Artagnan, the order of the day is not to allow any person to in this corridor; I am on for that particular purpose.”
D’Artagnan his anger to his brain a second time. He out quickly, for of the by a of ill-humor. As soon as he was out he to reflect. “The king,” said he, “will not me, that is evident. The man is angry; he is afraid, beforehand, of the that I may speak to him. Yes; but in the meantime Belle-Isle is besieged, and my two friends by now taken or killed. Poor Porthos! As to Master Aramis, he is always full of resources, and I am easy on his account. But, no, no; Porthos is not yet an invalid, is Aramis in his dotage. The one with his arm, the other with his imagination, will work for his majesty’s soldiers. Who if these men may not up for the of his most Christian a little of Saint-Gervais! I don’t of it. They have and a garrison. And yet,” D’Artagnan, “I don’t know it would not be to stop the combat. For myself alone I will not put up with either looks or from the king; but for my friends I must put up with everything. Shall I go to M. Colbert? Now, there is a man I must the of terrifying. I will go to M. Colbert.” And D’Artagnan set to M. Colbert, but was that he was with the king, at the of Nantes. “Good!” he, “the times have come again in which I my steps from De Treville to the cardinal, from the to the queen, from the queen to Louis XIII. Truly is it said that men, in old, children again!—To the castle, then!” He returned thither. M. de Lyonne was out. He gave D’Artagnan hands, but told him that the king had been all the and all night, and that orders had been that no one should be admitted. “Not the captain who takes the order?” D’Artagnan. “I think that is too strong.”
“Not he,” said M. de Lyonne.
“Since that is the case,” D’Artagnan, to the heart; “since the captain of the musketeers, who has always entered the king’s chamber, is no longer allowed to enter it, his cabinet, or his salle-a-manger, either the king is dead, or his captain is in disgrace. Do me the favor, then, M. de Lyonne, who are in favor, to return and tell the king, plainly, I send him my resignation.”
“D’Artagnan, of what you are doing!”
“For friendship’s sake, go!” and he pushed him the cabinet.
“Well, I will go,” said Lyonne.
D’Artagnan waited, walking about the in no mood. Lyonne returned.
“Well, what did the king say?” D’Artagnan.
“He answered, ‘’Tis well,’” Lyonne.
“That it was well!” said the captain, with an explosion. “That is to say, that he it? Good! Now, then, I am free! I am only a plain citizen, M. de Lyonne. I have the of you good-bye! Farewell, castle, corridor, ante-chamber! a bourgeois, about to breathe at liberty, takes his of you.”
And without waiting longer, the captain from the the staircase, where he had up the of Gourville’s letter. Five minutes after, he was at the hostelry, where, according to the of all great officers who have at the castle, he had taken what was called his city-chamber. But when he there, of off his and cloak, he took his pistols, put his money into a large leather purse, sent for his from the castle-stables, and gave orders that would their Vannes the night. Everything on according to his wishes. At eight o’clock in the evening, he was his in the stirrup, when M. de Gesvres appeared, at the of twelve guards, in of the hostelry. D’Artagnan saw all from the of his eye; he not fail thirteen men and thirteen horses. But he not to anything, and was about to put his in motion. Gesvres up to him. “Monsieur d’Artagnan!” said he, aloud.
“Ah, Monsieur de Gesvres! good evening!”
“One would say you were on horseback.”
“More than that,—I am mounted,—as you see.”
“It is I have met with you.”
“Were you looking for me, then?”
“Mon Dieu! yes.”
“On the part of the king, I will wager?”
“Yes.”
“As I, three days ago, in search of M. Fouquet?”
“Oh!”
“Nonsense! It is of no use being over-delicate with me; that is all labor lost. Tell me at once you are come to me.”
“To you?—Good heavens! no.”
“Why do you come to me with twelve at your heels, then?”
“I am making my round.”
“That isn’t bad! And so you me up in your round, eh?”
“I don’t you up; I meet with you, and I you to come with me.”
“Where?”
“To the king.”
“Good!” said D’Artagnan, with a air; “the king is disengaged.”
“For Heaven’s sake, captain,” said M. de Gesvres, in a low voice to the musketeer, “do not yourself! these men you.”
D’Artagnan laughed aloud, and replied:
“March! People who are are the six and the six last.”
“But as I am not you,” said M. de Gesvres, “you will behind, with me, if you please.”
“Well,” said D’Artagnan, “that is very polite, duke, and you are right in being so; for if I had had to make my near your chambre-de-ville, I should have been to you, I you, on the word of a gentleman! Now, one more; what the king want with me?”
“Oh, the king is furious!”
“Very well! the king, who has it while to be angry, may take the trouble to again; that is all. I shan’t die of that, I will swear.”
“No, but—”
“But—I shall be sent to keep company with M. Fouquet. Mordioux! That is a man, a man! We shall live very together, I will be sworn.”
“Here we are at our place of destination,” said the duke. “Captain, for Heaven’s be with the king!”
“Ah! ah! you are playing the man with me, duke!” said D’Artagnan, one of his over Gesvres. “I have been told that you are of your with my musketeers. This me as a opportunity.”
“I will take good not to myself of it, captain.”
“And why not, pray?”
“Oh, for many reasons—in the place, for this: if I were to succeed you in the after having you—”
“Ah! then you admit you have me?”
“No, I don’t.”
“Say met me, then. So, you were saying if you were to succeed me after having me?”
“Your musketeers, at the with cartridges, would fire my way, by mistake.”
“Oh, as to that I won’t say; for the do love me a little.”
Gesvres D’Artagnan pass in first, and took him to the cabinet where Louis was waiting for his captain of the musketeers, and himself his in the ante-chamber. The king be distinctly, speaking to Colbert in the same cabinet where Colbert might have heard, a days before, the king speaking with M. d’Artagnan. The as a the gate; and the report was spread the city that le of the had been by order of the king. Then these men were to be in motion, and as in the good old times of Louis XIII. and M. de Treville, groups were formed, and were filled; murmurs, from the below, came to the upper stories, like the of the waves. M. de Gesvres uneasy. He looked at his guards, who, after being by the who had just got among their ranks, to them with a of innocence. D’Artagnan was less by all this than M. de Gesvres, the captain of the guards. As soon as he entered, he seated himself on the of a window with his he saw all that was going on without the least emotion. No step of the progressive which had itself at the report of his him. He the very moment the would take place; and we know that his were in correct.
“It would be very whimsical,” he, “if, this evening, my should make me king of France. How I should laugh!”
But, at the height, all was stopped. Guards, musketeers, officers, soldiers, murmurs, uneasiness, dispersed, vanished, died away; there was an end of and sedition. One word had the waves. The king had Brienne to say, “Hush, messieurs! you the king.”
D’Artagnan sighed. “All is over!” said he; “the of the present day are not those of his Louis XIII. All is over!”
“Monsieur d’Artagnan, you are wanted in the ante-chamber of the king,” an usher.
