HOW PORTHOS, TRÜCHEN, AND PLANCHET PARTED WITH EACH OTHER ON FRIENDLY
TERMS, THANKS TO D'ARTAGNAN.
There was good living in Planchet's house. Porthos broke a ladder and
two cherry-trees, stripped the raspberry-bushes, and was only unable to
succeed in reaching the strawberry-beds on account, as he said, of his
belt. Trüchen, who had got quite sociable with the giant, said that it
was not the belt so much as his corporation; and Porthos, in a state of
the highest delight, embraced Trüchen, who gathered him a handful of the
strawberries, and made him eat them out of her hand. D'Artagnan, who
arrived in the midst of these little innocent flirtations, scolded
Porthos for his indolence, and silently pitied Planchet. Porthos
breakfasted with a very good appetite, and when he had finished, he
said, looking at Trüchen, "I could make myself very happy here." Trüchen
smiled at his remark, and so did Planchet, but the latter not without
some embarrassment.
D'Artagnan then addressed Porthos--"You must not let the delights of
Capua make you forget the real object of our journey to Fontainebleau."
"My presentation to the king?"
"Certainly. I am going to take a turn in the town to get everything
ready for that. Do not think of leaving the house. I beg."
"Oh, no!" exclaimed Porthos.
Planchet looked at D'Artagnan nervously. "Will you be away long?" he
inquired.
"No, my friend: and this very evening I will release you from two
troublesome guests."
"Oh! Monsieur d'Artagnan! can you say--"
"No, no; you are an excellent-hearted fellow, but your house is very
small. Such a house, with only a couple of acres of land, would be fit
for a king, and make him very happy, too. But you were not born a great
lord."
"No more was M. Porthos," murmured Planchet.
"But he has become so, my good fellow; his income has been a hundred
thousand francs a year for the last twenty years, and for the last fifty
years has been the owner of a couple of fists and a backbone, which are
not to be matched throughout the whole realm of France. Porthos is a man
of the very greatest consequence compared to you, and ... well, I need
say no more, for I know you are an intelligent fellow."
"No, no, monsieur, explain what you mean."
"Look at your orchard, how stripped it is, how empty your larder, your
bedstead broken, your cellar almost exhausted, look too ... at Madame
Trüchen--"
"Oh! my good gracious!" said Planchet.
"Madame Trüchen is an excellent person," continued D'Artagnan, "but keep
her for yourself, do you understand?" and he slapped him on the
shoulder.
Planchet at this moment perceived Porthos and Trüchen sitting close
together in an arbor: Trüchen, with a grace and manner peculiarly
Flemish, was making a pair of earrings for Porthos out of a double
cherry, while Porthos was laughing as amorously as Samson did with
Delilah. Planchet pressed D'Artagnan's hand, and ran toward the arbor.
We must do Porthos the justice to say that he did not move as they
approached, and very likely, he did not think he was doing any harm. Nor
indeed did Trüchen move either, which rather put Planchet out; but he,
too, had been so accustomed to see fashionable people in his shop, that
he found no difficulty in putting a good countenance on what was
disagreeable to him. Planchet seized Porthos by the arm, and proposed to
go and look at the horses, but Porthos pretended he was tired. Planchet
then suggested that the Baron de Valon should taste some noveau of his
own manufacture, which was not to be equaled anywhere; an offer which
the baron immediately accepted; and, in this way, Planchet managed to
engage his enemy's attention during the whole of the day, by dint of
sacrificing his cellar, in preference to his _amour propre_. Two hours
afterward D'Artagnan returned.
"Everything is arranged," he said: "I saw his majesty at the very moment
he was setting off for the chase: the king expects us this evening."
"The king expects me!" cried Porthos, drawing himself up. It is a sad
thing to have to confess, but a man's heart is like a restless billow;
for, from that very moment, Porthos ceased to look at Madame Trüchen in
that touching manner which had so softened her heart. Planchet
encouraged these ambitious leanings in the best way he could. He talked
over, or rather gave exaggerated accounts of all the splendors of the
last reign, its battles, sieges and grand court ceremonies. He spoke of
the luxurious display which the English made; the prizes which the three
brave companions had won, and how D'Artagnan, who at the beginning had
been the humblest of the three, had finished by becoming the head. He
fired Porthos with a generous feeling of enthusiasm, by reminding him of
his early youth now passed away; he boasted as much as he could of the
moral life this great lord had led, and how religiously he respected the
ties of friendship; he was eloquent and skillful in his choice of
subjects. He delighted Porthos, frightened Trüchen, and made D'Artagnan
think. At six o'clock, the musketeer ordered the horses to be brought
round, and told Porthos to get ready. He thanked Planchet for his kind
hospitality, whispered a few words about a post he might succeed in
obtaining for him at court, which immediately raised Planchet in
Trüchen's estimation, where the poor grocer--so good, so generous, so
devoted--had become much lowered ever since the appearance and
comparison with him of the two great gentlemen. Such, however, is
woman's nature; they are anxious to possess what they have not got, and
disdain it as soon as it is acquired. After having rendered this service
to his friend Planchet, D'Artagnan said in a low tone of voice to
Porthos: "That is a very beautiful ring you have on your finger."
"Its worth three hundred pistoles," said Porthos.
"Madame Trüchen will remember you better if you leave her that ring,"
replied D'Artagnan, a suggestion which Porthos seemed to hesitate to
adopt.
"You think it is not beautiful enough perhaps," said the musketeer. "I
understand your feelings; a great lord as you are would not think of
accepting the hospitality of an old servant without paying him most
handsomely for it; but I am sure that Planchet is too good-hearted a
fellow to remember that you have an income of a hundred thousand francs
a year."
"I have more than half a mind," said Porthos, flattered by the remark,
"to make Madame Trüchen a present of my little farm at Bracieux: it has
twelve acres."
"It is too much, my good Porthos, too much just at present.... Keep it
for a future occasion." He then took the ring off Porthos' finger, and
approaching Trüchen, said to her: "Madame, Monsieur le Baron hardly
knows how to entreat you, out of your regard for him, to accept this
little ring. M. de Valon is one of the most generous and discreet men of
my acquaintance. He wished to offer you a farm that he has at Bracieux,
but I dissuaded him from it."
"Oh!" said Trüchen, looking eagerly at the diamond.
"Monsieur le Baron!" exclaimed Planchet, quite overcome.
"My good friend," stammered out Porthos, delighted at having been so
well represented by D'Artagnan. These several exclamations, uttered at
the same moment, made quite a pathetic winding-up of a day which might
have finished in a very ridiculous manner. But D'Artagnan was there,
and, on every occasion, wherever D'Artagnan had exercised any control,
matters had ended only just in the way he wished and desired. There were
general embracings; Trüchen, whom the baron's munificence had restored
to her proper position, very timidly, and blushing all the while,
presented her forehead to the great lord with whom she had been on such
very excellent terms the evening before. Planchet himself was overcome
by a feeling of the deepest humility. Still, in the same generosity of
disposition, Porthos would have emptied his pockets into the hands of
the cook and of Celestin; but D'Artagnan stopped him.
"No," he said, "it is now my turn." And he gave one pistole to the woman
and two to the man; and the benedictions which were showered down upon
them would have rejoiced the heart of Harpagon himself, and have
rendered, even him, prodigal of his money.
D'Artagnan made Planchet lead them to the chateau, and introduced
Porthos into his own apartment, where he arrived safely without having
been perceived by those he was afraid of meeting.