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The Three Musketeers
Twenty Years Later
The Vicomte De Bragelonne
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The Three Musketeers 73 at Prostate Health
which he had charged the count.
"Well," said the latter, "a young woman of about twenty-six or
twenty-eight years of age, and a man of from thirty-five to
forty, have indeed lodged at the two houses pointed out by your
Eminence; but the woman left last night, and the man this
morning."
"It was they!" cried the cardinal, looking at the clock; "and now
it is too late to have them pursued. The duchess is at Tours,
and the duke at Boulogne. It is in London they must be found."
"What are your Eminences orders?"
"Not a word of what has passed. Let the queen remain in perfect
security; let her be ignorant that we know her secret. Let her
believe that we are in search of some conspiracy or other. Send
me the keeper of the seals, Seguier."
"And that man, what has your Eminence done with him?"
"What man?" asked the cardinal.
"That Bonacieux."
"I have done with him all that could be done. I have made him a
spy upon his wife."
The Comte de Rochefort bowed like a man who acknowledges the
superiority of the master as great, and retired.
Left alone, the cardinal seated himself again and wrote a letter,
which he secured with his special seal. Then he rang. The
officer entered for the fourth time.
"Tell Vitray to come to me," said he, "and tell him to get ready
for a journey."
An instant after, the man he asked for was before him, booted and
spurred.
"Vitray," said he, "you will go with all speed to London. You
must not stop an instant on the way. You will deliver this
letter to Milady. Here is an order for two hundred pistoles;
call upon my treasurer and get the money. You shall have as much
again if you are back within six days, and have executed your
commission well."
The messenger, without replying a single word, bowed, took the
letter, with the order for the two hundred pistoles, and retired.
Here is what the letter contained:
MILADY, Be at the first ball at which the Duke of Buckingham
shall be present. He will wear on his doublet twelve diamond
studs; get as near to him as you can, and cut off two.
As soon as these studs shall be in your possession, inform me.
15 MEN OF THE ROBE AND MEN OF THE SWORD
On the day after these events had taken place, Athos not having
reappeared, M. de Treville was informed by dArtagnan and Porthos
of the circumstance. As to Aramis, he had asked for leave of
absence for five days, and was gone, it was said, to Rouen on
family business.
M. de Treville was the father of his soldiers. The lowest or the
least known of them, as soon as he assumed the uniform of the
company, was as sure of his aid and support as if he had been his
own brother.
He repaired, then, instantly to the office of the LIEUTENANT-
CRIMINEL. The officer who commanded the post of the
Red Cross was sent for, and by successive inquiries they learned
that Athos was then lodged in the Fort lEveque.
Athos had passed through all the examinations we have seen
Bonacieux undergo.
We were present at the scene in which the two captives were
confronted with each other. Athos, who had till that time said
nothing for fear that dArtagnan, interrupted in his turn, should
not have the time necessary, from this moment declared that his
name was Athos, and not dArtagnan. He added that he did not
know either M. or Mme. Bonacieux; that he had never spoken to the
one or the other; that he had come, at about ten oclock in the
evening, to pay a visit to his friend M. dArtagnan, but that
till that hour he had been at M. de Trevilles, where he had
dined. "Twenty witnesses," added he, "could attest the fact";
and he named several distinguished gentlemen, and among them was
M. le Duc de la Tremouille.
The second commissary was as much bewildered as the first had
been by the simple and firm declaration of the Musketeer, upon
whom he was anxious to take the revenge which men of the robe
like at all times to gain over men of the sword; but the name of
M. de Treville, and that of M. de la Tremouille, commanded a
little reflection.
Athos was then sent to the cardinal; but unfortunately the
cardinal was at the Louvre with the
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