THE EXPLANATIONS OF ARAMIS.
"What I have to say to you, friend Porthos, will probably surprise you,
but it will instruct you."
"I like to be surprised," said Porthos, in a kindly tone; "do not spare
me, therefore, I beg. I am hardened against emotions; don't fear, speak
out."
"It is difficult, Porthos, it is--difficult; for, in truth, I warn you a
second time, I have very strange things, very extraordinary things, to
tell you."
"Oh! you speak so well, my friend, that I could listen to you for days
together. Speak, then, I beg--and--stop, I have an idea: I will, to make
your task more easy, I will, to assist you in telling me such things,
question you."
"I shall be pleased at your doing so."
"What are we going to fight for, Aramis?"
"If you make me many such questions as that--if you would render my task
the easier by interrupting my revelations thus, Porthos, you will not
help me at all. So far, on the contrary, that is precisely the Gordian
knot. But, my friend, with a man like you, good, generous, and devoted,
the confession must be made bravely. I have deceived you, my worthy
friend."
"You have deceived me!"
"Good heavens! yes."
"Was it for my good. Aramis?"
"I thought so, Porthos: I thought so sincerely, my friend."
"Then," said the honest seigneur of Bracieux, "you have rendered me a
service, and I thank you for it; for if you had not deceived me, I might
have deceived myself. In what, then, have you deceived me, say?"
"In that I was serving the usurper against whom Louis XIV., at this
moment, is directing his efforts."
"The usurper!" said Porthos, scratching his head. "That is--well I do
not too clearly comprehend that!"
"He is one of the two kings who are contending for the crown of France."
"Very well! Then you were serving him who is not Louis XIV.?"
"You have hit upon the matter in a word."
"It results that--"
"It results that we are rebels, my poor friend."
"The devil! the devil!" cried Porthos, much disappointed.
"Oh! but, dear Porthos, be calm, we shall still find means of getting
out of the affair, trust me."
"It is not that which makes me uneasy," replied Porthos; "that which
alone touches me is that ugly word _rebels_."
"Ah! but--"
"And so, according to this, the duchy that was promised me--"
"It was the usurper who was to give it to you."
"And that is not the same thing, Aramis," said Porthos, majestically.
"My friend, if it had only depended upon me, you should have become a
prince." Porthos began to bite his nails after a melancholy fashion.
"That is where you have been wrong," continued he, "in deceiving me; for
that promised duchy I reckoned upon. Oh! I reckoned upon it seriously,
knowing you to be a man of your word, Aramis."
"Poor Porthos! pardon me, I implore you!"
"So then," continued Porthos, without replying to the bishop's prayer,
"so then, it seems, I have quite fallen out with Louis XIV.?"
"Oh! I will settle all that, my good friend, I will settle all that. I
will take it upon myself alone!"
"Aramis!"
"No, no, Porthos, I conjure you, let me act. No false generosity! No
inopportune devotedness! You knew nothing of my projects. You have done
nothing of yourself. With me it is different. I am alone the author of
the plot. I stood in need of my inseparable companion: I called upon
you, and you came to me, in remembrance of our ancient device, 'All for
one, one for all.' My crime was being an egotist."
"Now, that is the word I like," said Porthos; "and seeing that you have
acted entirely for yourself, it is impossible for me to blame you. It is
natural." And upon this sublime reflection, Porthos pressed the hand of
his friend cordially.
In presence of this ingenuous greatness of soul, Aramis felt himself
little. It was the second time he had been compelled to bend before real
superiority of heart, much more powerful than splendor of mind. He
replied by a mute and energetic pressure to the kind endearment of his
friend.
"Now," said Porthos, "that we have come to an explanation, now that I am
perfectly aware of our situation with respect to Louis XIV., I think, my
friend, it is time to make me comprehend the political intrigue of which
we are the victims--for I plainly see there is a political intrigue at
the bottom of all this."
"D'Artagnan, my good Porthos, D'Artagnan is coming, and will detail it
to you in all its circumstances; but excuse me, I am deeply grieved, I
am bowed down by pain, and I have need of all my presence of mind, of
all my reflection, to extricate you from the false step in which I have
so imprudently involved you; but nothing can be more clear, nothing more
plain, than your position, henceforth. The king Louis XIV. has no longer
now but one enemy: that enemy is myself, myself alone. I have made you a
prisoner, you have followed me, to-day I liberate you, you fly back to
your prince. You can perceive, Porthos, there is not a single difficulty
in all this."
"Do you think so?" said Porthos.
"I am quite sure of it."
"Then why," said the admirable good sense of Porthos, "then why, if we
are in such an easy position, why, my friend, do we prepare cannon,
muskets, and engines of all sorts? It seems to me it would be much more
simple to say to Captain D'Artagnan: 'My dear friend, we have been
mistaken; that error is to be repaired; open the door to us, let us
pass through, and good day!'"
"Ah! that!" said Aramis, shaking his head.
"Why do you say 'that'? Do you not approve of my plan, my friend?"
"I see a difficulty in it."
"What is it?"
"The hypothesis that D'Artagnan may come with orders which will oblige
us to defend ourselves."
"What! defend ourselves against D'Artagnan? Folly! Against the good
D'Artagnan!"
Aramis once more replied by shaking his head.
"Porthos," at length said he, "if I have had the matches lighted, and
the guns pointed, if I have had the signal of alarm sounded, if I have
called every man to his post upon the ramparts, those good ramparts of
Belle-Isle which you have so well fortified, it is for something. Wait
to judge; or rather, no, do not wait--"
"What can I do?"
"If I knew, my friend, I would have told you."
"But there is one thing much more simple than defending ourselves:--a
boat, and away for France--where--"
"My dear friend," said Aramis, smiling with a strong shade of sadness,
"do not let us reason like children; let us be men in council and
execution.--But, hark! I hear a hail for landing at the port. Attention,
Porthos, serious attention!"
"It is D'Artagnan, no doubt," said Porthos, in a voice of thunder,
approaching the parapet.
"Yes, it is I," replied the captain of the musketeers, running lightly
up the steps of the mole, and gaining rapidly the little esplanade upon
which his two friends waited for him. As soon as he came toward them,
Porthos and Aramis observed an officer who followed D'Artagnan, treading
apparently in his very steps. The captain stopped upon the stairs of the
mole, when half-way up. His companion imitated him.
"Make your men draw back," cried D'Artagnan to Porthos and Aramis; "let
them retire out of hearing." The order being given by Porthos, was
executed immediately. Then D'Artagnan, turning toward him who followed
him--
"Monsieur," said he, "we are no longer here on board the king's fleet,
where, in virtue of your order, you spoke so arrogantly to me just now."
"Monsieur," replied the officer, "I did not speak arrogantly to you: I
simply, but rigorously, obeyed what I had been commanded. I have been
directed to follow you. I follow you. I am directed not to allow you to
communicate with any one without taking cognizance of what you do; I mix
myself, therefore, with your communications."
D'Artagnan trembled with rage, and Porthos and Aramis, who heard this
dialogue, trembled likewise, but with uneasiness and fear. D'Artagnan,
biting his mustache with that vivacity which denoted in him the state of
an exasperation, closely to be followed by a terrible explosion,
approached the officer.
"Monsieur," said he, in a low voice, so much the more impressive, that
affecting a calm it threatened a tempest--"monsieur, when I sent a canoe
hither, you wished to know what I wrote to the defenders of Belle-Isle.
You produced an order to that effect; and, in my turn, I instantly
showed you the note I had written. When the patron of the boat sent by
me returned, when I received the reply of these two gentlemen" (and he
pointed to Aramis and Porthos), "you heard every word of what the
messenger said. All that was plainly in your orders, all that was well
executed, very punctually, was it not?"
"Yes, monsieur," stammered the officer; "yes, without doubt, but--"
"Monsieur," continued D'Artagnan, growing warm--"monsieur, when I
manifested the intention of quitting my vessel to cross to Belle-Isle,
you required to accompany me; I did not hesitate; I brought you with me.
You are now at Belle-Isle, are you not?"
"Yes, monsieur; but--"
"But--the question no longer is of M. Colbert, who has given you that
order, or of whomsoever in the world you are following the
instructions: the question now is of a man who is a clog upon M.
d'Artagnan, and who is alone with M. d'Artagnan upon steps whose feet
are bathed by thirty feet of salt water; a bad position for that man, a
bad position, monsieur! I warn you."
"But, monsieur, if I am a restraint upon you," said the officer timidly,
and almost faintly, "it is my duty which--"
"Monsieur, you have had the misfortune, you, or those who have sent you,
to insult me. It is done. I cannot seek redress from those who employ
you--they are unknown to me, or are at too great a distance. But you are
under my hand, and I swear that if you make one step behind me when I
raise my feet to go up to those gentlemen--I swear to you by my name, I
will cleave your head in two with my sword, and pitch you into the
water. Oh! it will happen! it will happen! I have only been six times
angry in my life, monsieur, and, on the five times which have preceded
this, I have killed my man."
The officer did not stir; he became pale under this terrible threat, but
replied with simplicity, "Monsieur, you are wrong in acting against my
orders."
Porthos and Aramis, mute and trembling, at the top of the parapet, cried
to the musketeer, "Dear D'Artagnan, take care!"
D'Artagnan made them a sign to keep silence, raised his foot with a
terrifying calmness to mount the stair, and turned round, sword in hand,
to see if the officer followed him. The officer made a sign of the cross
and stepped up. Porthos and Aramis, who knew their D'Artagnan, uttered a
cry, and rushed down to prevent the blow they thought they already
heard. But D'Artagnan, passing his sword into his left hand--
"Monsieur," said he to the officer in an agitated voice, "you are a
brave man. You ought better to comprehend what I am going to say to you
now than that which I have just said to you."
"Speak, Monsieur d'Artagnan, speak," replied the brave officer.
"These gentlemen we have just seen, and against whom you have orders,
are my friends."
"I know they are, monsieur."
"You can understand if I ought to act toward them as your instructions
prescribe."
"I understand your reserves."
"Very well; permit me, then, to converse with them without a witness."
"Monsieur d'Artagnan, if I yielded to your request, if I did that which
you beg me to do, I should break my word; but if I do not do it, I shall
disoblige you. I prefer the one to the other. Converse with your
friends, and do not despise me, monsieur, for doing for the sake of you,
whom I esteem and honor; do not despise me for committing for you, and
you alone, an unworthy act." D'Artagnan, much agitated, passed his arms
rapidly round the neck of the young man, and went up to his friends. The
officer, enveloped in his cloak, sat down on the damp weed-covered
steps.
"Well!" said D'Artagnan to his friends, "such is my position, judge for
yourselves." They all three embraced. All three pressed each other in
their arms as in the glorious days of their youth.
"What is the meaning of all these rigors?" said Porthos.
"You ought to have some suspicions of what it is," said D'Artagnan.
"Not much, I assure you, my dear captain; for, in fact, I have done
nothing, no more has Aramis," hastened the worthy baron to say.
D'Artagnan darted a reproachful look at the prelate, which penetrated
that hardened heart.
"Dear Porthos!" cried the bishop of Vannes.
"You see what has been done against you," said D'Artagnan: "interception
of all that is coming to or going from Belle-Isle. Your boats are all
seized. If you had endeavored to fly, you would have fallen into the
hands of the cruisers which plow the sea in all directions, on the watch
for you. The king wants you to be taken, and he will take you." And
D'Artagnan tore several hairs from his gray mustache. Aramis became
somber, Porthos angry.
"My idea was this," continued D'Artagnan; "to make you both come on
board, to keep you near me, and restore you your liberty. But now, who
can say that when I return to my ship I may not find a superior?--that I
may not find secret orders which will take from me my command, and give
it to another, who will dispose of me and you without hopes of help?"
"We must remain at Belle-Isle," said Aramis, resolutely; "and I assure
you, for my part, I will not surrender easily." Porthos said nothing.
D'Artagnan remarked the silence of his friend.
"I have another trial to make of this officer, of this brave fellow who
accompanies me, and whose courageous resistance makes me very happy: for
it denotes an honest man, who, although an enemy, is a thousand times
better than a complaisant coward. Let us try to learn from him what he
has the right of doing, and what his orders permit or forbid."
"Let us try," said Aramis.
D'Artagnan came to the parapet, leaned over toward the steps of the
mole, and called the officer, who immediately came up. "Monsieur," said
D'Artagnan, after having exchanged the most cordial courtesies,
natural between gentlemen, who know and appreciate each other
worthily--"monsieur, if I wished to take away these gentlemen from this
place, what would you do?"
"I should not oppose it, monsieur; but having direct orders, formal
orders, to take them under my guard, I should detain them."
"Ah!" said D'Artagnan.
"That's all over," said Aramis, gloomily. Porthos did not stir.
"But still take Porthos," said the bishop of Vannes; "he can prove to
the king, I will help him in doing so, and you also can, M. d'Artagnan,
that he has had nothing to do in this affair."
"Hum!" said D'Artagnan. "Will you come? Will you follow me, Porthos? The
king is merciful."
"I beg to reflect," said Porthos, nobly.
"You will remain here, then?"
"Until fresh orders," said Aramis, with vivacity.
"Until we have had an idea," resumed D'Artagnan: "and I now believe that
will not be long first, for I have one already."
"Let us say adieu, then," said Aramis; "but in truth, my good Porthos,
you ought to go."
"No!" said the latter, laconically.
"As you please," replied Aramis, a little wounded in his nervous
susceptibility at the morose tone of his companion. "Only I am reassured
by the promise of an idea from D'Artagnan, an idea I fancy I have
divined."
"Let us see," said the musketeer, placing his ear near Aramis' mouth.
The latter spoke several words rapidly, to which D'Artagnan replied,
"That is it precisely."
"Infallible, then!" cried Aramis.
"During the first emotion that this resolution will cause, take care of
yourself, Aramis."
"Oh! don't be afraid."
"Now, monsieur," said D'Artagnan to the officer, "thanks, a thousand
thanks! You have made yourself three friends for life."
"Yes," added Aramis. Porthos alone said nothing, but merely bowed.
D'Artagnan having tenderly embraced his two old friends, left Belle-Isle
with the inseparable companion M. Colbert had given him. Thus, with the
exception of the explanation with which the worthy Porthos had been
willing to be satisfied, nothing had changed in appearance in the fate
of the one or of the other. "Only," said Aramis, "there is D'Artagnan's
idea."
D'Artagnan did not return on board without examining to the bottom the
idea he had discovered. Now, we know that when D'Artagnan did examine,
according to custom, daylight pierced through. As to the officer, become
mute again, he left him full measure to meditate. Therefore, on putting
his foot on board his vessel, moored within cannon-shot of the island,
the captain of the musketeers had already got together all his means,
offensive and defensive.
He immediately assembled his counsel, which consisted of the officers
serving under his orders. These were eight in number: a chief of the
maritime forces; a major directing the artillery; an engineer, the
officer we are acquainted with, and four lieutenants. Having assembled
them in the chamber of the poop, D'Artagnan arose, took off his hat, and
addressed them thus:
"Gentlemen. I have been to reconnoiter Belle-Isle-en-Mer, and I have
found in it a good and solid garrison; moreover, preparations are made
for a defense that may prove troublesome. I therefore intend to send for
two of the principal officers of the place, that we may converse with
them. Having separated them from their troops and their cannon, we shall
be better able to deal with them: particularly with good reasoning. Is
this your opinion, gentlemen?"
The major of artillery rose.
"Monsieur," said he, with respect, but with firmness, "I have heard you
say that the place is preparing to make a troublesome defense. The place
is, then, as you know, determined upon rebellion?"
D'Artagnan was visibly put out by this reply; but he was not a man to
allow himself to be subdued by so little, and resumed:
"Monsieur," said he, "your reply is just. But you are ignorant that
Belle-Isle is a fief of M. Fouquet's, and the ancient kings gave the
right to the seigneurs of Belle-Isle to arm their people."
The major made a movement.
"Oh! do not interrupt me," continued D'Artagnan. "You are going to tell
me that that right to arm themselves against the English was not a right
to arm themselves against their king. But it is not M. Fouquet, I
suppose, who holds Belle-Isle at this moment, since I arrested M.
Fouquet the day before yesterday. Now the inhabitants and defenders of
Belle-Isle know nothing of that arrest. You would announce it to them in
vain. It is a thing so unheard-of and extraordinary, so unexpected, that
they would not believe you. A Breton serves his master, and not his
masters; he serves his master till he has seen him dead. Now the
Bretons, as far as I know, have not seen the body of M. Fouquet. It is
not then surprising that they hold out against that which is not M.
Fouquet or his signature."
The major bowed in sign of assent.
"That is why," continued D'Artagnan, "I propose to cause two of the
principal officers of the garrison to come on board my vessel. They will
see you, gentlemen! they will see the forces we have at our disposal;
they will consequently know to what they have to trust, and the fate
that attends them in case of rebellion. We will affirm to them, upon our
honor, that M. Fouquet is a prisoner, and that all resistance can only
be prejudicial to them. We will tell them that the first cannon that is
fired, there will be no mercy to be expected from the king. Then, I hope
at least, they will no longer resist. They will yield without fighting,
and we shall have a place given up to us in a friendly way, which it
might cost us much trouble to subdue."
The officer who had followed D'Artagnan to Belle-Isle was preparing to
speak, but D'Artagnan interrupted him.
"Yes, I know what you are going to tell me, monsieur; I know that there
is an order of the king's to prevent all secret communications with the
defenders of Belle-Isle, and that is exactly why I do not offer to
communicate but in the presence of my staff."
And D'Artagnan made an inclination of the head to his officers, which
had for object attaching a value to that condescension.
The officers looked at each other as if to read their opinions in their
eyes, with the intention of evidently acting, after they should have
agreed, according to the desire of D'Artagnan. And already the latter
saw with joy that the result of their consent would be sending a bark to
Porthos and Aramis, when the king's officer drew from his pocket a
folded paper, which he placed in the hands of D'Artagnan.
This paper bore upon its superscription the number "1."
"What, more still!" murmured the surprised captain.
"Read, monsieur," said the officer, with a courtesy that was not free
from sadness.
D'Artagnan, full of mistrust, unfolded the paper, and read these words:
"Prohibition to Monsieur d'Artagnan to assemble any council
whatever, or to deliberate in any way before Belle-Isle be
surrendered and the prisoners shot. Signed--LOUIS."
D'Artagnan repressed the movement of impatience that, ran through his
whole body, and, with a gracious smile--"That is well, monsieur," said
he; "the king's orders shall be complied with."