D'Artagnan passed through the very midst of this discontented mob just as if his horse and he had been made of iron. Mazarin and Guitant conversed together in whispers. The musketeers, who had already discovered who Mazarin was, followed in profound silence. In the street of Saint Thomas-du-Louvre they stopped at the barrier distinguished by the name of Quinze-Vingts. Here Guitant spoke to one of the subalterns, asking how matters were progressing.
"Ah, captain!" said the officer, "everything is quiet hereabout--if I did not know that something is going on in yonder house!" And he pointed to a magnificent hotel situated on the very spot whereon the Vaudeville now stands.
"In that hotel? it is the Hotel Rambouillet," cried Guitant.
"I really don't know what hotel it is; all I do know is that I observed some suspicious looking people go in there----" "Nonsense!" exclaimed Guitant, with a burst of laughter; "those men must be poets."
"Come, Guitant, speak, if you please, respectfully of these gentlemen," said Mazarin; "don't you know that I was in my youth a poet?
I wrote verses in the style of Benserade----" "You, my lord?"
"Yes, I; shall I repeat to you some of my verses?"
"Just as you please, my lord. I do not understand Italian."
"Yes, but you understand French," and Mazarin laid his hand upon Guitant's shoulder. "My good, my brave Guitant, whatsoever command I may give you in that language--in French--whatever I may order you to do, will you not perform it?"
"Certainly. I have already answered that question in the affirmative; but that command must come from the queen herself." "Yes! ah yes!" Mazarin bit his lips as he spoke; "I know your devotion to her majesty."
"I have been a captain in the queen's guards for twenty years," was the reply.
"En route, Monsieur d'Artagnan," said the cardinal; "all goes well in this direction."
D'Artagnan, in the meantime, had taken the head of his detachment without a word and with that ready and profound obedience which marks the character of an old soldier.
He led the way toward the hill of Saint Roche. The Rue Richelieu and the Rue Villedot were then, owing to their vicinity to the ramparts, less frequented than any others in that direction, for the town was thinly inhabited thereabout.
"Who is in command here?" asked the cardinal. "Villequier," said Guitant.
"Diavolo! Speak to him yourself, for ever since you were deputed by me to arrest the Duc de Beaufort, this officer and I have been
on bad terms. He laid claim to that honor as captain of the royal guards."
"I am aware of that, and I have told him a hundred times that he was wrong. The king could not give that order, since at that time he was hardly four years old."
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"Yes, but I could give him the order--I, Guitant--and I preferred to give it to you." Guitant, without reply, rode forward and desired the sentinel to call Monsieur de Villequier.
"Ah! so you are here!" cried the officer, in the tone of ill-humor habitual to him; "what the devil are you doing here?"
"I wish to know--can you tell me, pray--is anything fresh occurring in this part of the town?"
"What do you mean? People cry out, 'Long live the king! down with Mazarin!' That's nothing new; no, we've been used to those acclamations for some time."
"And you sing chorus," replied Guitant, laughing.
"Faith, I've half a mind to do it. In my opinion the people are right; and cheerfully would I give up five years of my pay--which I am never paid, by the way--to make the king five years older."
"Really! And pray what would come to pass, supposing the king were five years older than he is?"
"As soon as ever the king comes of age he will issue his commands himself, and 'tis far pleasanter to obey the grandson of Henry IV. than the son of Peter Mazarin. 'Sdeath! I would die willingly for the king, but supposing I happened to be killed on account of Mazarin, as your nephew came near being to-day, there could be nothing in Paradise, however well placed I might be there, that could console me for it."
"Well, well, Monsieur de Villequier," Mazarin interposed, "I shall make it my care the king hears of your loyalty. Come, gentlemen,"
addressing the troop, "let us return."
"Stop," exclaimed Villequier, "so Mazarin was here! so much the better. I have been waiting for a long time to tell him what I think of him. I am obliged to you Guitant, although your intention was perhaps not very favorable to me, for such an opportunity."
He turned away and went off to his post, whistling a tune then popular among the party called the "Fronde," whilst Mazarin returned, in a pensive mood, toward the Palais Royal. All that he had heard from these three different men, Comminges, Guitant and Villequier, confirmed him in his conviction that in case of serious tumults there would be no one on his side except the queen; and then Anne of Austria had so often deserted her friends that her support seemed most precarious. During the whole of this nocturnal ride, during the whole time that he was endeavoring to understand the various characters of Comminges, Guitant and Villequier, Mazarin was, in truth, studying more especially one man. This man, who had remained immovable as bronze when menaced by the mob--not a muscle of whose face was stirred, either at Mazarin's witticisms or by the jests of the multitude--seemed to the cardinal a peculiar being, who, having participated in past events similar to those now occurring, was calculated to cope with those now on
the eve of taking place.
The name of D'Artagnan was not altogether new to Mazarin, who, although he did not arrive in France before the year 1634 or
1635, that is to say, about eight or nine years after the events which we have related in a preceding narrative, * fancied he had heard it
pronounced as that of one who was said to be a model of courage, address and loyalty.
* "The Three Musketeers."
Possessed by this idea, the cardinal resolved to know all about D'Artagnan immediately; of course he could not inquire from D'Artagnan himself who he was and what had been his career; he remarked, however, in the course of conversation that the lieutenant of musketeers spoke with a Gascon accent. Now the Italians and the Gascons are too much alike and know each other too well ever to trust what any one of them may say of himself; so in reaching the walls which surrounded the Palais Royal, the cardinal knocked at a little door, and after thanking D'Artagnan and requesting him to wait in the court of the Palais Royal, he made a sign to Guitant to follow him.
They both dismounted, consigned their horses to the lackey who had opened the door, and disappeared in the garden.
"My dear friend," said the cardinal, leaning, as they walked through the garden, on his friend's arm, "you told me just now that you had been twenty years in the queen's service."
"Yes, it's true. I have," returned Guitant.
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"Now, my dear Guitant, I have often remarked that in addition to your courage, which is indisputable, and your fidelity, which is
invincible, you possess an admirable memory."
"You have found that out, have you, my lord? Deuce take it--all the worse for me!" "How?"
"There is no doubt but that one of the chief accomplishments of a courtier is to know when to forget."
"But you, Guitant, are not a courtier. You are a brave soldier, one of the few remaining veterans of the days of Henry IV. Alas! how few to-day exist!"
"Plague on't, my lord, have you brought me here to get my horoscope out of me?"
"No; I only brought you here to ask you," returned Mazarin, smiling, "if you have taken any particular notice of our lieutenant of
musketeers?"