The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

Author:Alexandre Dumas
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3, pdf
ISBN: 9780553900712
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2004-09-27T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 30

* * *

MILADY

D’ARTAGNAN HAD followed Milady without letting her see him. He watched her get into her carriage and heard her order the coachman to go to Saint-Germain.

It would have been useless to try to follow the carriage on foot because its two powerful horses started off at a brisk trot, so d’Artagnan headed back toward the Rue Férou.

On the Rue de Seine he found Planchet standing in front of a pastry shop, gazing ecstatically at an appetizing bun. D’Artagnan told him to go to Monsieur de Tréville’s stables, saddle two horses, and bring them to him at Athos’s apartment. Monsieur de Tréville had put his stables at d’Artagnan’s disposal. Planchet set off for the Rue du Colombier, and d’Artagnan for the Rue Férou.

Athos was at home, sadly emptying a bottle of the Spanish wine he had brought back from his journey to Picardy. He signaled Grimaud to bring a glass for d’Artagnan, and Grimaud obeyed as usual.

D’Artagnan told Athos everything that had happened in the church between Porthos and Madame Coquenard, and added that their friend was probably well on the way to getting his equipment.

“I’m sure of one thing,” Athos remarked: “no woman is going to buy my equipment for me.”

“But you’re so handsome and aristocratic that you could have princesses and queens falling in love with you if you wanted to.”

“You’re very young, d’Artagnan,” Athos said impassively.

He signaled Grimaud to bring another bottle.

Planchet modestly put his head through the half-open door and told d’Artagnan that the two horses were there.

“What horses?” asked Athos.

“Two horses that Monsieur de Tréville has lent me. I’m going to Saint-Germain.”

“And what will you do there?”

D’Artagnan told Athos how he had seen the woman who obsessed him as much as the man with the scar on his temple.

“So now you’re in love with her, as you used to be in love with Madame Bonacieux,” said Athos, disdainfully shrugging his shoulders as though he felt sorry for human weakness.

“Not at all!” d’Artagnan protested. “I only want to clear up the mystery around her. I don’t know her and she doesn’t know me, yet for some reason I have a feeling that she’s affecting my life.”

“You’re right to abandon Madame Bonacieux,” said Athos. “No woman is worth the effort of trying to find her when she’s lost. Madame Bonacieux is lost, but that’s her concern, not yours.”

“No, Athos, you’re wrong. I love my poor Constance more than ever. I’d go to the ends of the earth to save her from her enemies if I knew where she was, but I don’t. All my efforts to find her have failed. In the meantime, I still have to go on living.”

“If having an adventure with Milady will brighten up your life, I wish you success.”

“Athos, instead of staying in your apartment as if it were a prison, why not ride to Saint-Germain with me?”

“I ride when I own a horse, otherwise I walk.”

D’Artagnan smiled at Athos’s brusque refusal, which would have offended him if it had come from anyone else.

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