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The Three Musketeers
Twenty Years Later
The Vicomte De Bragelonne
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The Three Musketeers 75 at Prostate Health
the affair about which I spoke to you."
"We all know that," interrupted the king; "for all that was done
for our service."
"Then," said Treville, "it was also for your Majestys service
that one of my Musketeers, who was innocent, has been seized,
that he has been placed between two guards like a malefactor, and
that this gallant man, who has ten times shed his blood in your
Majestys service and is ready to shed it again, has been paraded
through the midst of an insolent populace?"
"Bah!" said the king, who began to be shaken, "was it so
managed?"
"Monsieur de Treville," said the cardinal, with the greatest
phlegm, "does not tell your Majesty that this innocent Musketeer,
this gallant man, had only an hour before attacked, sword in
hand, four commissaries of inquiry, who were delegated by myself
to examine into an affair of the highest importance."
"I defy your Eminence to prove it," cried Treville, with his
Gascon freedom and military frankness; "for one hour before,
Monsieur Athos, who, I will confide it to your Majesty, is really
a man of the highest quality, did me the honor after having dined
with me to be conversing in the saloon of my hotel, with the Duc
de la Tremouille and the Comte de Chalus, who happened to be
there."
The king looked at the cardinal.
"A written examination attests it," said the cardinal, replying
aloud to the mute interrogation of his Majesty; "and the ill-
treated people have drawn up the following, which I have the
honor to present to your Majesty."
"And is the written report of the gownsmen to be placed in
comparison with the word of honor of a swordsman?" replied
Treville haughtily.
"Come, come, Treville, hold your tongue," said the king.
"If his Eminence entertains any suspicion against one of my
Musketeers," said Treville, "the justice of Monsieur the Cardinal
is so well known that I demand an inquiry."
"In the house in which the judicial inquiry was made," continued
the impassive cardinal, "there lodges, I believe, a young
Bearnais, a friend of the Musketeer."
"Your Eminence means Monsieur dArtagnan."
"I mean a young man whom you patronize, Monsieur de Treville."
"Yes, your Eminence, it is the same."
"Do you not suspect this young man of having given bad counsel?"
"To Athos, to a man double his age?" interrupted Treville. "No,
monseigneur. Besides, dArtagnan passed the evening with me."
"Well," said the cardinal, "everybody seems to have passed the
evening with you."
"Does your Eminence doubt my word?" said Treville, with a brow
flushed with anger.
"No, God forbid," said the cardinal; "only, at what hour was he with you?"
"Oh, as to that I can speak positively, your Eminence; for as he
came in I remarked that it was but half past nine by the clock,
although I had believed it to be later."
"At what hour did he leave your hotel?"
"At half past ten--an hour after the event."
"Well," replied the cardinal, who could not for an instant
suspect the loyalty of Treville, and who felt that the victory
was escaping him, "well, but Athos WAS taken in the house in the
Rue des Fossoyeurs."
"Is one friend forbidden to visit another, or a Musketeer of my
company to fraternize with a Guard of Dessessarts company?"
"Yes, when the house where he fraternizes is suspected."
"That house is suspected, Treville," said the king; "perhaps you
did not know it?"
"Indeed, sire, I did not. The house may be suspected; but I deny
that it is so in the part of it inhabited my Monsieur dArtagnan,
for I can affirm, sire, if I can believe what he says, that there
does not exist a more devoted servant of your Majesty, or a more
profound admirer of Monsieur the Cardinal."
"Was it not this dArtagnan who wounded Jussac one day, in that
unfortunate encounter which took place near the Convent of the
Carmes-Dechausses?" asked the king, looking at the cardinal, who
colored with vexation.
"And the next day, Bernajoux. Yes, sire, yes, it is the same; and
your Majesty has a good memory."
"Come, how shall we decide?" said the king.
"That concerns your Majesty more than me," said the cardinal. "I
should affirm the culpability."
"And I deny it," said Treville. "But his Majesty has judges, and
these judges will decide."
"That is best," said the king. "Send the case before the judges;
it is their business to judge, and they shall judge."
"Only," replied Treville, "it is a sad thing that in the
unfortunate times in which we live, the purest life, the most
incontestable virtue, cannot
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