50

Twenty Years After

by Alexandre Dumas

50, TWENTY YEARS AFTER by Alexandre Dumas
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The Interview.



It had been D'Artagnan's practice, ever since the riots, to
sleep in the same room as Porthos, and on this eventful
morning he was still there, sleeping, and dreaming that a
yellow cloud had overspread the sky and was raining gold
pieces into his hat, which he held out till it was
overflowing with pistoles. As for Porthos, he dreamed that
the panels of his carriage were not capacious enough to
contain the armorial bearings he had ordered to be painted
on them. They were both aroused at seven o'clock by the
entrance of an unliveried servant, who brought a letter for
D'Artagnan.

"From whom?" asked the Gascon.

"From the queen," replied the servant.

"Ho!" said Porthos, raising himself in his bed; "what does
she say?"

D'Artagnan requested the servant to wait in the next room
and when the door was closed he sprang up from his bed and
read rapidly, whilst Porthos looked at him with starting
eyes, not daring to ask a single question.

"Friend Porthos," said D'Artagnan, handing the letter to
him, "this time, at least, you are sure of your title of
baron, and I of my captaincy. Read for yourself and judge."

Porthos took the letter and with a trembling voice read the
following words:

"The queen wishes to speak to Monsieur d'Artagnan, who must
follow the bearer."

"Well!" exclaimed Porthos; "I see nothing in that very
extraordinary."

"But I see much that is very extraordinary in it," replied
D'Artagnan. "It is evident, by their sending for me, that
matters are becoming complicated. Just reflect a little what
an agitation the queen's mind must be in for her to have
remembered me after twenty years."

"It is true," said Porthos.

"Sharpen your sword, baron, load your pistols, and give some
corn to the horses, for I will answer for it,
something lightning-like will happen ere to-morrow."

"But, stop; do you think it can be a trap that they are
laying for us?" suggested Porthos, incessantly thinking how
his greatness must be irksome to inferior people.

"If it is a snare," replied D'Artagnan, "I shall scent it
out, be assured. If Mazarin is an Italian, I am a Gascon."

And D'Artagnan dressed himself in an instant.

Whilst Porthos, still in bed, was hooking on his cloak for
him, a second knock at the door was heard.

"Come in," exclaimed D'Artagnan; and another servant
entered.

"From His Eminence, Cardinal Mazarin," presenting a letter.

D'Artagnan looked at Porthos.

"A complicated affair," said Porthos; "where will you
begin?"

"It is arranged capitally; his eminence expects me in half
an hour."

"Good."

"My friend," said D'Artagnan, turning to the servant, "tell
his eminence that in half an hour I shall be at his
command."

"It is very fortunate," resumed the Gascon, when the valet
had retired, "that he did not meet the other one."

"Do you not think that they have sent for you, both for the
same thing?"

"I do not think it, I am certain of it."

"Quick, quick, D'Artagnan. Remember that the queen awaits
you, and after the queen, the cardinal, and after the
cardinal, myself."

D'Artagnan summoned Anne of Austria's servant and signified
that he was ready to follow him into the queen's presence.

The servant conducted him by the Rue des Petits Champs and
turning to the left entered the little garden gate leading
into the Rue Richelieu; then they gained the private
staircase and D'Artagnan was ushered into the oratory. A
certain emotion, for which he could not account, made the
lieutenant's heart beat: he had no longer the assurance of
youth; experience had taught him the importance of past
events. Formerly he would have approached the queen as a
young man who bends before a woman; but now it was a
different thing; he answered her summons as an humble
soldier obeys an illustrious general.

The silence of the oratory was at last disturbed by the
slight rustling of silk, and D'Artagnan started when he
perceived the tapestry raised by a white hand, which, by its
form, its color and its beauty he recognized as that royal
hand which had one day been presented to him to kiss. The
queen entered.

"It is you, Monsieur d'Artagnan," she said, fixing a gaze
full of melancholy interest on the countenance of the
officer, "and I know you well. Look at me well in your turn.
I am the queen; do you recognize me?"

"No, madame," replied D'Artagnan.

"But are you no longer aware," continued Anne, giving that
sweet expression to her voice which she could do at will,
"that in former days the queen had once need of a young,
brave and devoted cavalier -- that she found this cavalier
-- and that, although he might have thought that she had
forgotten him, she had kept a place for him in the depths of
her heart?"

"No, madame, I was ignorant of that," said the musketeer.

"So much the worse, sir," said Anne of Austria; "so much the
worse, at least for the queen, for to-day she has need of
the same courage and the same devotion."

"What!" exclaimed D'Artagnan, "does the queen, surrounded as
she is by such devoted servants, such wise counselors, men,
in short, so great by merit or position -- does she deign to
cast her eyes on an obscure soldier?"

Anne understood this covert reproach and was more moved than
irritated by it. She had many a time felt humiliated by the
self-sacrifice and disinterestedness shown by the Gascon
gentleman. She had allowed herself to be exceeded in
generosity.

"All that you tell me of those by whom I am surrounded,
Monsieur d'Artagnan, is doubtless true," said the queen,
"but I have confidence in you alone. I know that you belong
to the cardinal, but belong to me as well, and I will take
upon myself the making of your fortune. Come, will you do
to-day what formerly the gentleman you do not know did for
the queen?"

"I will do everything your majesty commands," replied
D'Artagnan.

The queen reflected for a moment and then, seeing the
cautious demeanor of the musketeer:

"Perhaps you like repose?" she said.

"I do not know, for I have never had it, madame."

"Have you any friends?"

"I had three, two of whom have left Paris, to go I know not
where. One alone is left to me, but he is one of those
known, I believe, to the cavalier of whom your majesty did
me the honor to speak."

"Very good," said the queen; "you and your friend are worth
an army."

"What am I to do, madame?"

"Return at five o'clock and I will tell you; but do not
breathe to a living soul, sir, the rendezvous which I give
you."

"No, madame."

"Swear it upon the cross."

"Madame, I have never been false to my word; when I say I
will not do a thing, I mean it."

The queen, although astonished at this language, to which
she was not accustomed from her courtiers, argued from it a
happy omen of the zeal with which D'Artagnan would serve her
in the accomplishment of her project. It was one of the
Gascon's artifices to hide his deep cunning occasionally
under an appearance of rough loyalty.

"Has the queen any further commands for me now?" asked
D'Artagnan.

"No, sir," replied Anne of Austria, "and you may retire
until the time that I mentioned to you."

D'Artagnan bowed and went out.

"Diable!" he exclaimed when the door was shut, "they seem to
have the greatest need of me just now."

Then, as the half hour had already glided by, he crossed the
gallery and knocked at the cardinal's door.

Bernouin introduced him.

"I come for your commands, my lord," he said.

And according to his custom D'Artagnan glanced rapidly
around and remarked that Mazarin had a sealed letter before
him. But it was so placed on the desk that he could not see
to whom it was addressed.

"You come from the queen?" said Mazarin, looking fixedly at
D'Artagnan.

"I! my lord -- who told you that?"

"Nobody, but I know it."

"I regret infinitely to tell you, my lord, that you are
mistaken," replied the Gascon, impudently, firm to the
promise he had just made to Anne of Austria.

"I opened the door of the ante-room myself and I saw you
enter at the end of the corridor."

"Because I was shown up the private stairs."

"How so?"

"I know not; it must have been a mistake."

Mazarin was aware that it was not easy to make D'Artagnan
reveal anything he was desirous of hiding, so he gave up,
for the time, the discovery of the mystery the Gascon was
concealing.

"Let us speak of my affairs," said Mazarin, "since you will
tell me naught of yours. Are you fond of traveling?"

"My life has been passed on the high road."

"Would anything retain you particularly in Paris?"

"Nothing but an order from a superior would retain me in
Paris."

"Very well. Here is a letter, which must be taken to its
address."

"To its address, my lord? But it has none."

In fact, the side of the letter opposite the seal was blank.

"I must tell you," resumed Mazarin, "that it is in a double
envelope."

"I understand; and I am to take off the first one when I
have reached a certain place?"

"Just so, take it and go. You have a friend, Monsieur du
Vallon, whom I like much; let him accompany you."

"The devil!" said D'Artagnan to himself. "He knows that we
overheard his conversation yesterday and he wants to get us
away from Paris."

"Do you hesitate?" asked Mazarin.

"No, my lord, and I will set out at once. There is one thing
only which I must request."

"What is it? Speak."

"That your eminence will go at once to the queen."

"What for?"

"Merely to say these words: `I am going to send Monsieur
d'Artagnan away and I wish him to set out directly.'"

"I told you," said Mazarin, "that you had seen the queen."

"I had the honor of saying to your eminence that there had
been some mistake."

"What is the meaning of that?"

"May I venture to repeat my prayer to your eminence?"

"Very well; I will go. Wait here for me." And looking
attentively around him, to see if he had left any of his
keys in his closets, Mazarin went out. Ten minutes elapsed,
during which D'Artagnan made every effort to read through
the first envelope what was written on the second. But he
did not succeed.

Mazarin returned, pale, and evidently thoughtful. He seated
himself at his desk and D'Artagnan proceeded to examine his
face, as he had just examined the letter he held, but the
envelope which covered his countenance appeared as
impenetrable as that which covered the letter.

"Ah!" thought the Gascon; "he looks displeased. Can it be
with me? He meditates. Is it about sending me to the
Bastile? All very fine, my lord, but at the very first hint
you give of such a thing I will strangle you and become
Frondist. I should be carried home in triumph like Monsieur
Broussel and Athos would proclaim me the French Brutus. It
would be exceedingly droll."

The Gascon, with his vivid imagination, had already seen the
advantage to be derived from his situation. Mazarin gave,
however, no order of the kind, but on the contrary began to
be insinuating.

"You were right," he said, "my dear Monsieur d'Artagnan, and
you cannot set out yet. I beg you to return me that
dispatch."

D'Artagnan obeyed, and Mazarin ascertained that the seal was
intact.

"I shall want you this evening," he said "Return in two
hours."

"My lord," said D'Artagnan, "I have an appointment in two
hours which I cannot miss."

"Do not be uneasy," said Mazarin; "it is the same."

"Good!" thought D'Artagnan; "I fancied it was so."

"Return, then, at five o'clock and bring that worthy
Monsieur du Vallon with you. Only, leave him in the
ante-room, as I wish to speak to you alone."

D'Artagnan bowed, and thought: "Both at the same hour; both
commands alike; both at the Palais Royal. Monsieur de Gondy
would pay a hundred thousand francs for such a secret!"

"You are thoughtful," said Mazarin, uneasily.

"Yes, I was thinking whether we ought to come armed or not."

"Armed to the teeth!" replied Mazarin.

"Very well, my lord; it shall be so."

D'Artagnan saluted, went out and hastened to repeat to his
friend Mazarin's flattering promises, which gave Porthos an
indescribable happiness.