“That’s it,” replied Athos, becoming almost livid; “that is my grand story of the fair lady, and when I relate that, I must be very drunk.”
“Yes, that was it,” said D’Artagnan, “the story of a tall, fair lady, with blue eyes.”
“Yes, who was hanged.”
“By her husband, who was a nobleman of your acquaintance” continued D’Artagnan, looking intently at Athos.
“Well, you see how a man may compromise himself when he does not know what he says,” replied Athos, shrugging his shoulders as if he thought himself an object of pity. “I certainly never will get drunk again, D’Artagnan; it is too bad a habit.”
D’Artagnan remained silent; and then changing the conversation all at once, Athos said:
“By the by, I thank you for the horse you have brought me.”
“Is it to your mind?” asked D’Artagnan.
“Yes; but it is not a horse for hard work.”
“You are mistaken; I rode him nearly ten leagues in less than an hour and a half, and he appeared no more distressed than if be had only made the tour of the Place St. Sulpice.”
“Ah, you begin to awaken my regret.”
“Regret?”
“Yes; I have parted with him.”
“How?”
“Why, here is the simple fact. This morning I awoke at six o‘clock. You were still fast asleep, and I did not know what to do with myself; I was still stupid from our yesterday’s debauch. As I came into the public room, I saw one of our Englishmen bargaining with a dealer for a horse, his own having died yesterday from bleeding. I drew near, and found he was bidding a hundred pistoles for a fine chestnut nag. ‘
Pardieu
,’ said I, ‘my good gentleman, I have a horse to sell, too.’ ‘Ay, and a very fine one! I saw him yesterday; your friend’s lackey was leading him.’ ‘Do you think he is worth a hundred pistoles?’ ‘Yes! Will you sell him to me for that sum?’ ‘No; but I will play for him.’ ‘What?’ sell him to me for that sum?’ ‘No; but I will play for him.’ ‘At dice.’ No sooner said than done, and I lost the horse. Ah, ah! but please to observe I won back the equipage,” cried Athos.
D’Artagnan looked much disconcerted.
“This vexes you?” said Athos.
“Well, I must confess it does,” replied D’Artagnan. “That horse was to have identified us in the day of battle. It was a pledge, a remembrance. Athos, you have done wrong.”
“But, my dear friend, put yourself in my place,” replied the Musketeer. “I was hipped to death; and still further, upon my honor, I don’t like English horses. If it is only to be recognized, why the saddle will suffice for that; it is quite remarkable enough. As to the horse, we can easily find some excuse for its disappearance. Why the devil! a horse is mortal; suppose mine had had the glanders or the farcy?”
D’Artagnan did not smile.
“It vexes me greatly,” continued Athos, “that you attach so much importance to these animals, for I am not yet at the end of my story.”
“What else have you done?”
“After having lost my own horse, nine against ten—see how near—I formed an idea of staking yours.”
“Yes; but you stopped at the idea, I hope?”
“No; for I put it in execution that very minute.”
“And the consequence?” said D’Artagnan, in great anxiety.
“I threw, and I lost.”
“What, my horse?”
“Your horse, seven against eight; a point short—you know the proverb.”
“Athos, you are not in your right senses, I swear.”
“My dear lad, that was yesterday, when I was telling you silly stories, it was proper to tell me that, and not this morning. I lost him then, with all his appointments and furniture.”
“Really, this is frightful.”
“Stop a minute; you don’t know all yet. I should make an excellent gambler if I were not too hot-headed; but I was hot-headed, just as if I had been drinking. Well, I was not hot-headed then—”
“Well, but what else could you play for? You had nothing left?”
“Oh, yes, my friend; there was still that diamond left which sparkles on your finger, and which I had observed yesterday.”
“This diamond!” said D’Artagnan, placing his hand eagerly on his ring.
“And as I am a connoisseur in such things, having had a few of my own once, I estimated it at a thousand pistoles.”
“I hope,” said D’Artagnan, half dead with fright, “you made no mention of my diamond?”
“On the contrary, my dear friend, this diamond became our only resource; with it I might regain our horses and their harnesses, and even money to pay our expenses on the road.”
“Athos, you make me tremble!” cried D’Artagnan.
“I mentioned your diamond then to my adversary, who had likewise remarked it. What the devil, my dear, do you think you can wear a star from heaven on your finger, and nobody observe it? Impossible!”
“Go on, go on, my dear fellow!” said D’Artagnan; “for upon my honor, you will kill me with your indifference.”
“We divided, then, this diamond into ten parts of a hundred pistoles each.”
“You are laughing at me, and want to try me!” said D’Artagnan, whom anger began to take by the hair, as Minerva takes Achilles, in the
Iliad.
“No, I do not jest,
mordieu!
I should like to have seen you in my place! I had been fifteen days without seeing a human face, and had been left to brutalize myself in the company of bottles.”
“That was no reason for staking my diamond!” replied D’Artagnan, closing his hand with a nervous spasm.
“Hear the end. Ten parts of a hundred pistoles each, in ten throws, without revenge; in thirteen throws I had lost all—in thirteen throws. The number thirteen was always fatal to me; it was on the thirteenth of the month of July that—”
“Ventrebleu!”
aa
cried D’Artagnan, rising from the table, the story of the present day making him forget that of the preceding one.
“Patience!” said Athos; “I had a plan. The Englishman was an original; I had seen him conversing that morning with Grimaud, and Grimaud had told me that he had made him proposals to enter into his service. I staked Grimaud, the silent Grimaud, divided into ten portions.”
“Well, what next?” said D’Artagnan, laughing in spite of himself.
“Grimaud himself, understand; and with the ten parts of Grimaud, which are not worth a ducatoon, I regained the diamond. Tell me, now, if persistence is not a virtue?”
“My faith! but this is droll,” cried D’Artagnan, consoled, and holding his sides with laughter.
“You may guess, finding the luck turned, that I again staked the diamond.”
“The devil!” said D’Artagnan, becoming angry again.
“I won back your harness, then your horse, then my harness, then my horse, and then I lost again. In brief, I regained your harness and then mine. That’s where we are. That was a superb throw, so I left off there.”
D’Artagnan breathed as if the whole hostelry had been removed from his breast.
“Then the diamond is safe?” said he, timidly.
“Intact, my dear friend; besides the harness of your Bucephalus
ab
and mine.”
“But what is the use of harnesses without horses?”
“I have an idea about them.”
“Athos, you make me shudder.”
“Listen to me. You have not played for a long time, D’Artagnan.”
“And I have no inclination to play.”
“Swear to nothing. You have not played for a long time, I said; you ought, then, to have a good hand.”
“Well, what then?”
“Well; the Englishman and his companion are still here. I remarked that he regretted the horse furniture very much. You appear to think much of your horse. In your place I would stake the furniture against the horse.”
“But he will not wish for only one harness.”
“Stake both,
pardieu!
I am not selfish, as you are.”
“You would do so?” said D’Artagnan, undecided, so strongly did the confidence of Athos begin to prevail, in spite of himself.
“On my honor, in one single throw.”
“But having lost the horses, I am particularly anxious to preserve the harnesses.”
“Stake your diamond, then.”
“This? That’s another matter. Never, never!”
“The devil!” said Athos. “I would propose to you to stake Planchet, but as that has already been done, the Englishman would not, perhaps, be willing.”
“Decidedly, my dear Athos,” said D’Artagnan, “I should like better not to risk anything.”
“That’s a pity,” said Athos, coolly. “The Englishman is overflowing with pistoles. Good Lord, try one throw! One throw is soon made!”
“And if I lose?”
“You will win.”
“But if I lose?”
“Well, you will surrender the harnesses.”
“Have with you for one throw!” said D’Artagnan.
Athos went in quest of the Englishman, whom he found in the stable, examining the harnesses with a greedy eye. The opportunity was good. He proposed the conditions—the two harnesses, either against one horse or a hundred pistoles. The Englishman calculated fast; the two harnesses were worth three hundred pistoles. He consented.
D’Artagnan threw the dice with a trembling hand, and turned up the number three; his paleness terrified Athos, who, however, contented himself with saying, “That’s a sad throw, comrade; you will have the horses fully equipped, monsieur.”
The Englishman, quite triumphant, did not even give himself the trouble to shake the dice. He threw them on the table without looking at them, so sure was he of victory; D’Artagnan turned aside to conceal his ill humor.
“Hold, hold, hold!” said Athos, with his quiet tone; “that throw of the dice is extraordinary. I have not seen such a one four times in my life. Two aces!”
The Englishman looked, and was seized with astonishment. D’Artagnan looked, and was seized with pleasure.
“Yes,” continued Athos, “four times only; once at the house of Monsieur Créquy; another time at my own house in the country, in my château at—when I had a château; a third time at Monsieur de Tréville’s, where it surprised us all; and the fourth time at a cabaret, where it fell to my lot, and where I lost a hundred louis and a supper on it.”
“Then Monsieur takes his horse back again,” said the Englishman.
“Certainly,” said D’Artagnan.
“Then there is no revenge?”
“Our conditions said, ‘No revenge,’ you will please to recollect.”
“That is true; the horse shall be restored to your lackey, monsieur. ”
“A moment,” said Athos; “with your permission, monsieur, I wish to speak a word with my friend.”
“Say on.”
Athos drew D’Artagnan aside.
“Well, Tempter, what more do you want with me?” said D’Artagnan. “You want me to throw again, do you not?”
“No, I would wish you to reflect.”
“On what?”
“You mean to take your horse?”
“Without doubt.”
“You are wrong, then. I would take the hundred pistoles. You know you have staked the harnesses against the horse or a hundred pistoles, at your choice.”
“Yes.”
“Well, then, I would take the hundred pistoles.”
“And I take the horse.”
“In which, I repeat, you are wrong. What is the use of one horse for us two? I could not ride behind. We should look like the two sons of Aymon, who had lost their brother. You cannot think of humiliating me by prancing along by my side on that magnificent charger. For my part, I should not hesitate a moment; I should take the hundred pistoles. We want money for our return to Paris.”
“I am much attached to that horse, Athos.”
“And there again you are wrong. A horse slips and injures a joint; a horse stumbles and breaks his knees to the bone; a horse eats out of a manger in which a glandered horse has eaten. There is a horse, or rather a hundred pistoles, lost. A master must feed his horse, while on the contrary, the hundred pistoles feed their master.”
“But how shall we get back?”
“Upon our lackeys’ horses,
pardieu.
Anybody may see by our bearing that we are people of condition.”
“Pretty figures we shall cut on ponies while Aramis and Porthos caracole on their steeds.”
“Aramis! Porthos!” cried Athos, and laughed aloud.
“What is it?” asked D’Artagnan, who did not at all comprehend the hilarity of his friend.
“Nothing, nothing! Go on!”
“Your advice, then?”
“To take the hundred pistoles, D’Artagnan. With the hundred pistoles we can live well to the end of the month. We have undergone a great deal of fatigue, remember, and a little rest will do no harm.”
“I rest? Oh, no, Athos. Once in Paris, I shall prosecute my search for that unfortunate woman!”
“Well, you may be assured that your horse will not be half so serviceable to you for that purpose as good golden louis. Take the hundred pistoles, my friend; take the hundred pistoles!”
D’Artagnan only required one reason to be satisfied. This last reason appeared convincing. Besides, he feared that by resisting longer he should appear selfish in the eyes of Athos. He acquiesced, therefore, and chose the hundred pistoles, which the Englishman paid down on the spot.
They then determined to depart. Peace with the landlord, in addition to Athos’s old horse, cost six pistoles. D’Artagnan and Athos took the nags of Planchet and Grimaud, and the two lackeys started on foot, carrying the saddles on their heads.
However ill our two friends were mounted, they were soon far in advance of their servants, and arrived at Crèvecœur. From a distance they perceived Aramis, seated in a melancholy manner at his window. looking out, like Sister Anne, at the dust in the horizon.
ac
“Holà,
Aramis! what the devil are you doing there?” cried the two friends.
“Ah, is that you, D’Artagnan, and you, Athos?” said the young man. “I was reflecting upon the rapidity with which the blessings of this world leave us. My English horse, which has just disappeared amid a cloud of dust, has furnished me with a living image of the fragility of the things of the earth. Life itself may be resolved into three words:
Erat, est, fuit.”
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