D’Artagnan to bed--not to sleep, but to think over all he had heard that evening. Being naturally goodhearted, and having had once a for Athos, which had grown into a sincere friendship, he was delighted at thus meeting a man full of intelligence and moral strength, instead of a drunkard. He admitted without the continued superiority of Athos over himself, as he was of that which might have saddened a less generous ; he was delighted also that the high qualities of Athos appeared to promise favorably for his mission. Nevertheless, it seemed to him that Athos was not in all respects sincere and frank. Who was the youth he had adopted and who bore so striking a resemblance to him? What could explain Athos’s having re-entered the world and the extreme sobriety he had observed at table? The absence of Grimaud, whose name had never once been uttered by Athos, gave D’Artagnan uneasiness. It was evident either that he no longer the confidence of his friend, or that Athos was bound by some invisible chain, or that he had been forewarned of the ’s visit.
He could not help thinking of M. Rochefort, whom he had seen in Notre ; could De Rochefort have him with Athos? Again, the moderate fortune which Athos possessed, as it was, so skillfully, seemed to show a regard for appearances and to betray a latent ambition which might be easily aroused. The clear and vigorous intellect of Athos would render him more open to conviction than a less able man would be. He would enter into the minister’s schemes with the more , because his natural activity would be doubled by necessity.
Resolved to seek an explanation on all these points on the following day, D’Artagnan, in spite of his , prepared for an attack and that it should take place after breakfast. He determined to cultivate the good-will of the youth Raoul and, either whilst fencing with him or when out shooting, to extract from his some information which would connect the Athos of old times with the Athos of the present. But D’Artagnan at the same time, being a man of extreme caution, was quite aware what injury he should do himself, if by any indiscretion or awkwardness he should betray has manoeuvering to the experienced eye of Athos. Besides, to tell truth, whilst D’Artagnan was quite disposed to adopt a subtle course against the cunning of Aramis or the vanity of Porthos, he was ashamed to with Athos, true-hearted, open Athos. It seemed to him that if Porthos and Aramis deemed him superior to them in the arts of , they would like him all the better for it; but that Athos, on the contrary, would despise him.
“Ah! why is not Grimaud, the taciturn Grimaud, here?” thought D’Artagnan, “there are so many things his silence would have told me; with Grimaud silence was another form of !”
There a perfect stillness in the house. D’Artagnan had heard the door shut and the barred; the dogs became in their turn silent. At last a nightingale, lost in a of , in the midst of its most had low and lower into stillness and fallen asleep. Not a sound was heard in the castle, except of a footstep up and down, in the above--as he supposed, the bedroom of Athos.
“He is walking about and thinking,” thought D’Artagnan; “but of what? It is impossible to know; everything else might be guessed, but not that.”
At length Athos went to bed, , for the noise ceased.
Silence and fatigue together overcame D’Artagnan and sleep overtook him also. He was not, however, a good . Scarcely had dawn his window curtains when he sprang out of bed and opened the windows. Somebody, he perceived, was in the courtyard, moving stealthily. True to his custom of never passing anything over that it was within his power to know, D’Artagnan looked out of the window and perceived the close red coat and brown hair of Raoul.
The young man was opening the door of the stable. He then, with noiseless haste, took out the horse that he had ridden on the previous evening, saddled and it himself and led the animal into the to the right of the kitchen-garden, opened a side door which conducted him to a road, shut it after him, and D’Artagnan saw him pass by like a , bending, as he went, beneath the pendent flowery branches of and acacia. The road, as D’Artagnan had observed, was the way to Blois.
“So!” thought the Gascon “here’s a young blade who has already his love affair, who doesn’t at all agree with Athos in his to the fair sex. He’s not going to hunt, for he has neither dogs nor arms; he’s not going on a message, for he goes secretly. Why does he go in secret? Is he afraid of me or of his father? for I am sure the count is his father. By Jove! I shall know about that soon, for I shall soon speak out to Athos.”
Day was now advanced; all the noises that had ceased the night before reawakened, one after the other. The bird on the branch, the dog in his , the sheep in the field, the boats in the Loire, even, became alive and . The latter, leaving the shore, abandoned themselves to the current. The Gascon gave a last twirl to his mustache, a last turn to his hair, brushed, from habit, the brim of his hat with the sleeve of his doublet, and went downstairs. Scarcely had he the last step of the threshold when he saw Athos down toward the ground, as if he were looking for a crown-piece in the dust.
“Good-morning, my dear host,” cried D’Artagnan.
“Good-day to you; have you slept well?”
“Excellently, Athos, but what are you looking for? You are perhaps a tulip fancier?”
“My dear friend, if I am, you must not laugh at me for being so. In the country people alter; one gets to like, without knowing it, all those beautiful objects that God causes to spring from the earth, which are despised in cities. I was looking anxiously for some roots I planted here, close to this reservoir, and which some one has upon this morning. These gardeners are the most careless people in the world; in bringing the horse out to the water they’ve allowed him to walk over the border.”
D’Artagnan began to smile.
“Ah! you think so, do you?”
And he took his friend along the alley, where a number of tracks like those which had trampled down the flowerbeds, were visible.
“Here are the horse’s again, it seems, Athos,” he said carelessly.
“Yes, indeed, the marks are recent.”
“Quite so,” replied the lieutenant.
“Who went out this morning?” Athos asked, uneasily. “Has any horse got loose?”
“Not likely,” answered the Gascon; “these marks are regular.”
“Where is Raoul?” asked Athos; “how is it that I have not seen him?”
“Hush!” exclaimed D’Artagnan, putting his finger on his lips; and he related what he had seen, watching Athos all the while.
“Ah, he’s gone to Blois; the poor boy----”
“Wherefore?”
“Ah, to inquire after the little La Valliere; she has her foot, you know.”
“You think he has?”
“I am sure of it,” said Athos; “don’t you see that Raoul is in love?”
“Indeed! with whom--with a child seven years old?”
“Dear friend, at Raoul’s age the heart is so expansive that it must encircle one object or another, fancied or real. Well, his love is half real, half fanciful. She is the prettiest little creature in the world, with flaxen hair, blue eyes,--at once and .”
“But what say you to Raoul’s fancy?”
“Nothing--I laugh at Raoul; but this first desire of the heart is imperious. I remember, just at his age, how deep in love I was with a Grecian statue which our good king, then Henry IV., gave my father, insomuch that I was mad with grief when they told me that the story of Pygmalion was nothing but a .”
“It is want of occupation. You do not make Raoul work, so he takes his own way of employing himself.”
“Exactly; therefore I think of sending him away from here.”
“You will be wise to do so.”
“No doubt of it; but it will break his heart. So long as three or four years ago he used to and adore his little , whom he will some day fall in love with in right earnest if he here. The parents of little La Valliere have for a long time perceived and been amused at it; now they begin to look concerned.”
“Nonsense! However, Raoul must be diverted from this fancy. Send him away or you will never make a man of him.”
“I think I shall send him to Paris.”
“So!” thought D’Artagnan, and it seemed to him that the moment for attack had arrived.
“Suppose,” he said, “we roughly chalk out a career fo............