The Man in the Iron Mask
King Louis XIV.
The king was seated in his cabinet, with his the door of entrance. In of him was a mirror, in which, while over his papers, he see at a those who came in. He did not take any notice of the entrance of D’Artagnan, but spread above his and plans the large cloth he used to his from the importunate. D’Artagnan this by-play, and in the background; so that at the end of a minute the king, who nothing, and saw nothing save from the of his eye, was to cry, “Is not M. d’Artagnan there?”
“I am here, sire,” the musketeer, advancing.
“Well, monsieur,” said the king, his on D’Artagnan, “what have you to say to me?”
“I, sire!” the latter, who the of his to make a good retort; “I have nothing to say to your majesty, unless it be that you have me to be arrested, and here I am.”
The king was going to reply that he had not had D’Artagnan arrested, but any such appeared too much like an excuse, and he was silent. D’Artagnan an silence.
“Monsieur,” at length the king, “what did I you to go and do at Belle-Isle? Tell me, if you please.”
The king while these looked at his captain. Here D’Artagnan was fortunate; the king to place the game in his hands.
“I believe,” he, “that your me the to ask what I to Belle-Isle to accomplish?”
“Yes, monsieur.”
“Well! sire, I know nothing about it; it is not of me that question should be asked, but of that number of officers of all kinds, to have been orders of all kinds, to me, of the expedition, nothing was said or in any whatever.”
The king was hurt: he it by his reply. “Monsieur,” said he, “orders have only been to such as were faithful.”
“And, therefore, I have been astonished, sire,” the musketeer, “that a captain like myself, who ranks with a of France, should have himself under the orders of five or six or majors, good to make of, possibly, but not at all fit to a expedition. It was upon this I came to an of your majesty, when I the door closed against me, which, the final offered to a man, has me to your majesty’s service.”
“Monsieur,” the king, “you still that you are in an age when kings were, as you complain of having been, under the orders and at the of their inferiors. You to that a king an account of his to none but God.”
“I nothing, sire,” said the musketeer, by this lesson. “Besides, I do not see in what an man, when he of his king how he has ill-served him, him.”
“You have ill-served me, monsieur, by with my against me.”
“Who are your enemies, sire?”
“The men I sent you to fight.”
“Two men the of the whole of your majesty’s army! That is incredible.”
“You have no power to judge of my will.”
“But I have to judge of my own friendships, sire.”
“He who his friends not his master.”
“I so well this, sire, that I have offered your my resignation.”
“And I have it, monsieur,” said the king. “Before being from you I was to prove to you that I know how to keep my word.”
“Your has more than your word, for your has had me arrested,” said D’Artagnan, with his cold, air; “you did not promise me that, sire.”
The king would not to the pleasantry, and continued, seriously, “You see, monsieur, to what steps your me.”
“My disobedience!” D’Artagnan, red with anger.
“It is the term that I can find,” the king. “My idea was to take and rebels; was I to these were your friends or not?”
“But I was,” D’Artagnan. “It was a on your majesty’s part to send me to my friends and lead them to your gibbets.”
“It was a trial I had to make, monsieur, of servants, who eat my and should my person. The trial has succeeded ill, Monsieur d’Artagnan.”
“For one your loses,” said the musketeer, with bitterness, “there are ten who, on that same day, go through a like ordeal. Listen to me, sire; I am not to that service. Mine is a when I am to do ill. It was to send me in of two men M. Fouquet, your majesty’s preserver, you to save. Still further, these men were my friends. They did not attack your majesty, they to your anger. Besides, why were they not allowed to escape? What had they committed? I admit you may with me the right of their conduct. But why me the action? Why me with spies? Why me the army? Why me, in till now you the most entire confidence—who for thirty years have been to your person, and have you a thousand proofs of my devotion—for it must be said, now that I am accused—why me to see three thousand of the king’s soldiers in against two men?”
“One would say you have what these men have done to me!” said the king, in a voice, “and that it was no of theirs I was not lost.”
“Sire, one would you that I was there.”
“Enough, Monsieur d’Artagnan, of these which to keep the sun itself from my interests. I am a in which there shall be but one master, as I promised you; the moment is at hand for me to keep my promise. You wish to be, according to your tastes or private friendships, free to my plans and save my enemies? I will you or will you—seek a more master. I know full well that another king would not himself as I do, and would allow himself to be by you, at the of sending you some day to keep company with M. Fouquet and the rest; but I have an excellent memory, and for me, services are titles to gratitude, to impunity. You shall only have this lesson, Monsieur d’Artagnan, as the of your want of discipline, and I will not my in anger, not having them in favor. And, then, other make me act you; in the place, you are a man of sense, a man of excellent sense, a man of heart, and that you will be a to him who shall have you; secondly, you will to have any for insubordination. Your friends are now or by me. These supports on which your mind I have to disappear. At this moment, my soldiers have taken or killed the of Belle-Isle.”
D’Artagnan pale. “Taken or killed!” he. “Oh! sire, if you what you tell, if you were sure you were telling me the truth, I should all that is just, all that is in your words, to call you a king, and an man. But I you these words,” said he, with pride; “I them to a who not know, who cannot what such men as M. d’Herblay, M. du Vallon, and myself are. Taken or killed! Ah! Ah! sire! tell me, if the news is true, how much has it cost you in men and money. We will then if the game has been the stakes.”
As he spoke thus, the king up to him in great anger, and said, “Monsieur d’Artagnan, your are those of a rebel! Tell me, if you please, who is king of France? Do you know any other?”
“Sire,” the captain of the musketeers, coldly, “I very well that one at Vaux you that question to many people who did not answer to it, I, on my part, did answer to it. If I my king on that day, when the thing was not easy, I think it would be to ask the question of me now, when your and I are alone.”
At these Louis his eyes. It appeared to him that the of the Philippe passed D’Artagnan and himself, to the of that terrible adventure. Almost at the same moment an officer entered and a in the hands of the king, who, in his turn, color, while reading it.
“Monsieur,” said he, “what I learn here you would know later; it is I should tell you, and that you should learn it from the mouth of your king. A has taken place at Belle-Isle.”
“Is it possible?” said D’Artagnan, with a air, though his was fast to him. “Well, sire?”
“Well, monsieur—and I have a hundred and ten men.”
A of and in the of D’Artagnan. “And the rebels?” said he.
“The have fled,” said the king.
D’Artagnan not a of triumph. “Only,” added the king, “I have a which closely Belle-Isle, and I am not a can escape.”
“So that,” said the musketeer, to his idea, “if these two are taken—”
“They will be hanged,” said the king, quietly.
“And do they know it?” D’Artagnan, his trembling.
“They know it, you must have told them yourself; and all the country it.”
“Then, sire, they will be taken alive, I will answer for that.”
“Ah!” said the king, negligently, and taking up his again. “Very well, they will be dead, then, Monsieur d’Artagnan, and that will come to the same thing, since I should only take them to have them hanged.”
D’Artagnan the which from his brow.
“I have told you,” Louis XIV., “that I would one day be an affectionate, generous, and master. You are now the only man of times of my anger or my friendship. I will not you either sentiment, according to your conduct. Could you a king, Monsieur d’Artagnan, who should have a hundred kings, his equals, in the kingdom? Could I, tell me, do with such weak the great I meditate? Did you see an artist great with an tool? Far from us, monsieur, the old of abuse! The Fronde, which to monarchy, has it. I am master at home, Captain d’Artagnan, and I shall have who, lacking, perhaps, your genius, will and to the of heroism. Of what consequence, I ask you, of what is it that God has no to arms and legs? It is to the he has genius, and the head, you know, the obey. I am the head.”
D’Artagnan started. Louis XIV. as if he had nothing, although this had not by any means him. “Now, let us us two the I promised to make with you one day when you me in a very at Blois. Do me justice, monsieur, when you admit I do not make any one pay for the of that I then shed. Look around you; have bowed. Bow yours, or choose such as will you. Perhaps, when upon it, you will your king has a heart, who upon your to allow you to him dissatisfied, when you a great secret. You are a man; I know you to be so. Why have you me prematurely? Judge me from this day forward, D’Artagnan, and be as as you please.”
D’Artagnan bewildered, mute, for the time in his life. At last he had an of him. This was no longer trick, it was calculation; no longer violence, but strength; no longer passion, but will; no longer boasting, but council. This man who had a Fouquet, and do without a D’Artagnan, the calculations of the musketeer.
“Come, let us see what stops you?” said the king, kindly. “You have in your resignation; shall I to accept it? I admit that it may be hard for such an old captain to good-humor.”
“Oh!” D’Artagnan, in a tone, “that is not my most care. I to take my I am old in with you, and have difficult to abandon. Henceforward, you must have who know how to you—madmen who will themselves killed to out what you call your great works. Great they will be, I feel—but, if by I should not think them so? I have war, sire, I have peace; I have Richelieu and Mazarin; I have been with your father, at the fire of Rochelle; with sword-thrusts like a sieve, having a new skin ten times, as do. After and injustices, I have a which was something, it gave the the right of speaking as he liked to his king. But your captain of the will be an officer the doors. Truly, sire, if that is to be my from this time, the opportunity of our being on good terms, to take it from me. Do not that I malice; no, you have me, as you say; but it must be that in me you have me; by me you have me of weakness. If you how well it me to my high, and what a I shall have while the of your carpets! Oh! sire, I sincerely, and you will as I do, the old days when the king of France saw in every those gentlemen, lean, always swearing—cross-grained mastiffs, who bite in the hour of or of battle. These men were the best of to the hand which them—they would it; but for the hand that them, oh! the bite that followed! A little gold on the of their cloaks, a in their hauts-de-chausses, a little of in their hair, and you will the and peers, the of France. But why should I tell you all this? The king is master; he that I should make verses, he that I should the of his ante-chambers with shoes. Mordioux! that is difficult, but I have got over difficulties. I will do it. Why should I do it? Because I love money?—I have enough. Because I am ambitious?—my career is almost at an end. Because I love the court? No. I will here I have been for thirty years to go and take the word of the king, and to have said to me ‘Good evening, D’Artagnan,’ with a I did not for. That I will for! Are you content, sire?” And D’Artagnan his head, upon which the king his white hand with pride.
“Thanks, my old servant, my friend,” said he. “As, from this day, I have no longer any in France, it with me to send you to a to your marshal’s baton. Depend upon me for you an opportunity. In the meanwhile, eat of my very best bread, and sleep in tranquillity.”
“That is all and well!” said D’Artagnan, much agitated. “But those men at Belle-Isle? One of them, in particular—so good! so brave! so true!”
“Do you ask their of me?”
“Upon my knees, sire!”
“Well! then, go and take it to them, if it be still in time. But do you answer for them?”
“With my life, sire.”
“Go, then. To-morrow I set out for Paris. Return by that time, for I do not wish you to me in the future.”
“Be of that, sire,” said D’Artagnan, the hand.
And with a with joy, he out of the on his way to Belle-Isle.
