THE BASTION SAINT-GERVAIS

On arriving at the lodgings of his three friends, D`Artagnan

found them assembled in the same chamber. Athos was

meditating; Porthos was twisting his mustache; Aramis was

saying his prayers in a charming little Book of Hours, bound

in blue velvet.

"Pardieu, gentlemen," said he. "I hope what you have to

tell me is worth the trouble, or else, I warn you, I will

not pardon you for making me come here instead of getting a

little rest after a night spent in taking and dismantling a

bastion. Ah, why were you not there, gentlemen? It was

warm work."

"We were in a place where it was not very cold," replied

Porthos, giving his mustache a twist which was peculiar to

him.

"Hush!" said Athos.

"Oh, oh!" said D`Artagnan, comprehending the slight frown of

the Musketeer. "It appears there is something fresh

aboard."

"Aramis," said Athos, "you went to breakfast the day before

yesterday at the inn of the Parpaillot, I believe?"

"Yes."

"How did you fare?"

"For my part, I ate but little. The day before yesterday

was a fish day, and they had nothing but meat."

"What," said Athos, "no fish at a seaport?"

"They say," said Aramis, resuming his pious reading, "that

the dyke which the cardinal is making drives them all out

into the open sea."

"But that is not quite what I mean to ask you, Aramis,"

replied Athos. "I want to know if you were left alone, and

nobody interrupted

you."

"Why, I think there were not many intruders. Yes, Athos, I

know what you mean: we shall do very well at the

Parpaillot."

"Let us go to the Parpaillot, then, for here the walls are

like sheets of paper."

D`Artagnan, who was accustomed to his friend`s manner of

acting, and who perceived immediately, by a word, a gesture,

or a sign from him, that the circumstances were serious,

took Athos`s arm, and went out without saying anything.

Porthos followed, chatting with Aramis.

On their way they met Grimaud. Athos made him a sign to

come with them. Grimaud, according to custom, obeyed in

silence; the poor lad had nearly come to the pass of

forgetting how to speak.

They arrived at the drinking room of the Parpaillot. It was

seven o`clock in the morning, and daylight began to appear.

The three friends ordered breakfast, and went into a room in

which the host said they would not be disturbed.

Unfortunately, the hour was badly chosen for a private

conference. The morning drum had just been beaten; everyone

shook off the drowsiness of night, and to dispel the humid

morning air, came to take a drop at the inn. Dragoons,

Swiss, Guardsmen, Musketeers, light-horsemen, succeeded one

another with a rapidity which might answer the purpose of

the host very well, but agreed badly with the views of the

four friends. Thus they applied very curtly to the

salutations, healths, and jokes of their companions.

"I see how it will be," said Athos: "we shall get into some

pretty quarrel or other, and we have no need of one just

now. D`Artagnan, tell us what sort of a night you have had,

and we will describe ours afterward."

"Ah, yes," said a light-horseman, with a glass of brandy in

his hand, which he sipped slowly. "I hear you gentlemen of

the Guards have been in the trenches tonight, and that you

did not get much the best of the Rochellais."

D`Artagnan looked at Athos to know if he ought to reply to

this intruder who thus mixed unmasked in their conversation.

"Well," said Athos, "don`t you hear Monsieur de Busigny, who

does you the honor to ask you a question? Relate what has

passed during the night, since these gentlemen desire to

know it."

"Have you not taken a bastion?" said a Swiss, who was

drinking rum out of beer glass.

"Yes, monsieur," said D`Artagnan, bowing, "we have had that

honor. We even have, as you may have heard, introduced a

barrel of powder under one of the angles, which in blowing

up made a very pretty breach. Without reckoning that as the

bastion was not built yesterday all the rest of the building

was badly shaken."

"And what bastion is it?" asked a dragoon, with his saber

run through a goose which he was taking to be cooked.

"The bastion St. Gervais," replied D`Artagnan, "from behind

which the Rochellais annoyed our workmen."

"Was that affair hot?"

"Yes, moderately so. We lost five men, and the Rochellais

eight or ten."

"Balzempleu!" said the Swiss, who, notwithstanding the

admirable collection of oaths possessed by the German

language, had acquired a habit of swearing in French.

"But it is probable," said the light-horseman, "that they

will send pioneers this morning to repair the bastion."

"Yes, that`s probable," said D`Artagnan.

"Gentlemen," said Athos, "a wager!"

"Ah, wooi, a vager!" cried the Swiss.

"What is it?" said the light-horseman.

"Stop a bit," said the dragoon, placing his saber like a

spit upon the two large iron dogs which held the firebrands

in the chimney, "stop a bit, I am in it. You cursed host! a

dripping pan immediately, that I may not lose a drop of the

fat of this estimable bird."

"You was right," said the Swiss; "goose grease is kood with

basdry."

"There!" said the dragoon. "Now for the wager! We listen, Monsieur Athos."

"Yes, the wager!" said the light-horseman.

"Well, Monsieur de Busigny, I will bet you," said Athos,

"that my three companions, Messieurs Porthos, Aramis, and

D`Artagnan, and myself, will go and breakfast in the bastion

St. Gervais, and we will remain there an hour, by the watch,

whatever the enemy may do to dislodge us."

Porthos and Aramis looked at each other; they began to

comprehend.

"But," said D`Artagnan, in the ear of Athos, "you are going

to get us all killed without mercy."

"We are much more likely to be killed," said Athos, "if we

do not go."

"My faith, gentlemen," said Porthos, turning round upon his

chair and twisting his mustache, "that`s a fair bet, I

hope."

"I take it," said M. de Busigny; "so let us fix the stake."

"You are four gentlemen," said Athos, "and we are four; an

unlimited dinner for eight. Will that do?"

"Capitally," replied M. de Busigny.

"Perfectly," said the dragoon.

"That shoots me," said the Swiss.

The fourth auditor, who during all this conversation had

played a mute part, made a sign of the head in proof that he

acquiesced in the proposition.

"The breakfast for these gentlemen is ready," said the host.

"Well, bring it," said Athos.

The host obeyed. Athos called Grimaud, pointed to a large

basket which lay in a corner, and made a sign to him to wrap

the viands up in the napkins.

Grimaud understood that it was to be a breakfast on the

grass, took the basket, packed up the viands, added the

bottles, and then took the basket on his arm.

"But where are you going to eat my breakfast?" asked the

host.

"What matter, if you are paid for it?" said Athos, and he

threw two pistoles majestically on the table.

"Shall I give you the change, my officer?" said the host.

"No, only add two bottles of champagne, and the difference

will be for the napkins."

The host had not quite so good a bargain as he at first

hoped for, but he made amends by slipping in two bottles of

Anjou wine instead of two bottles of champagne.

"Monsieur de Busigny," said Athos, "will you be so kind as

to set your watch with mine, or permit me to regulate mine

by yours?"

"Which you please, monsieur!" said the light-horseman,

drawing from his fob a very handsome watch, studded with

diamonds; "half past seven."

"Thirty-five minutes after seven," said Athos, "by which you

perceive I am five minutes faster than you."

And bowing to all the astonished persons present, the young

men took the road to the bastion St. Gervais, followed by

Grimaud, who carried the basket, ignorant of where he was

going but in the passive obedience which Athos had taught

him not even thinking of asking.

As long as they were within the circle of the camp, the four

friends did not exchange one word; besides, they were

followed by the curious, who, hearing of the wager, were

anxious to know how they would come out of it. But when

once they passed the line of circumvallation and found

themselves in the open plain, D`Artagnan, who was completely

ignorant of what was going forward, thought it was time to

demand an explanation.

"And now, my dear Athos," said he, "do me the kindness to

tell me where we are going?"

"Why, you see plainly enough we are going to the bastion."

"But what are we going to do there?"

"You know well that we go to breakfast there."

"But why did we not breakfast at the Parpaillot?"

"Because we have very important matters to communicate to

one another, and it was impossible to talk five minutes in

that inn without being annoyed by all those importunate

fellows, who keep coming in, saluting you, and addressing

you. Here at least," said Athos, pointing to the bastion,

"they will not come and disturb us."

"It appears to me," said D`Artagnan, with that prudence

which allied itself in him so naturally with excessive

bravery, "that we could have found some retired place on the

downs or the seashore."

"Where we should have been seen all four conferring

together, so that at the end of a quarter of an hour the

cardinal would have been informed by his spies that we were

holding a council."

"Yes," said Aramis, "Athos is right: Animadvertuntur in

desertis."

"A desert would not have been amiss," said Porthos; "but it

behooved us to find it."

"There is no desert where a bird cannot pass over one`s

head, where a fish cannot leap out of the water, where a

rabbit cannot come out of its burrow, and I believe that

bird, fish, and rabbit each becomes a spy of the cardinal.

Better, then, pursue our enterprise; from which, besides, we

cannot retreat without shame. We have made a wager--a wager

which could not have been foreseen, and of which I defy

anyone to divine the true cause. We are going, in order to

win it, to remain an hour in the bastion. Either we shall

be attacked, or not. If we are not, we shall have all the

time to talk, and nobody will hear us--for I guarantee the

walls of the bastion have no ears; if we are, we will talk

of our affairs just the same. Moreover, in defending

ourselves, we shall cover ourselves with glory. You see

that everything is to our advantage."

"Yes," said D`Artagnan; "but we shall indubitably attract a

ball."

"Well, my dear," replied Athos, "you know well that the

balls most to be dreaded are not from the enemy."

"But for such an expedition we surely ought to have brought

our muskets."

"You are stupid, friend Porthos. Why should we load

ourselves with a useless burden?"

"I don`t find a good musket, twelve cartridges, and a powder

flask very useless in the face of an enemy."

"Well," replied Athos, "have you not heard what D`Artagnan

said?"

"What did he say?" demanded Porthos.

"D`Artagnan said that in the attack of last night eight or

ten Frenchmen were killed, and as many Rochellais."

"What then?"

"The bodies were not plundered, were they? It appears the

conquerors had something else to do."

"Well?"

"Well, we shall find their muskets, their cartridges, and

their flasks; and instead of four musketoons and twelve

balls, we shall have fifteen guns and a hundred charges to

fire."

"Oh, Athos!" said Aramis, "truly you are a great man."

Porthos nodded in sign of agreement. D`Artagnan alone did

not seem convinced.

Grimaud no doubt shared the misgivings of the young man, for

seeing that they continued to advance toward the

bastion--something he had till then doubted--he pulled his

master by the skirt of his coat.

"Where are we going?" asked he, by a gesture.

Athos pointed to the bastion.

"But," said Grimaud, in the same silent dialect, "we shall

leave our skins there."

Athos raised his eyes and his finger toward heaven.

Grimaud put his basket on the ground and sat down with a

shake of the head.

Athos took a pistol from his belt, looked to see if it was

properly primed, cocked it, and placed the muzzle close to

Grimaud`s ear.

Grimaud was on his legs again as if by a spring. Athos then

made him a sign to take up his basket and to walk on first.

Grimaud obeyed. All that Grimaud gained by this momentary

pantomime was to pass from the rear guard to the vanguard.

Arrived at the bastion, the four friends turned round.

More than three hundred soldiers of all kinds were assembled

at the gate of the camp; and in a separate group might be

distinguished M. de Busigny, the dragoon, the Swiss, and the

fourth bettor.

Athos took off his hat, placed it on the end of his sword,

and waved it in the air.

All the spectators returned him his salute, accompanying

this courtesy with a loud hurrah which was audible to the

four; after which all four disappeared in the bastion,

whither Grimaud had preceded them.

Date: 2015-01-29; view: 678