Part 115 (1/2)
”You are home, then, my dear master?” said Planchet
”No, my friend,” replied the o to bed, sleep five hours, and at break of day leap into my saddle Has my horse had an extra feed?”
”Eh! my dear master,” replied Planchet, ”you know very well that your horse is the jewel of the fa it with sugar, nuts, and biscuits You ask me if he has had an extra feed of oats; you should ask if he has not had enough to burst hiht Now, then, I pass to what concernsroast joint, white wine, crayfish, and fresh-gathered cherries All ready, my master”
”You are a capital fellow, Planchet; co supper D'Artagnan observed that Planchet kept rubbing his forehead, as if to facilitate the issue of some idea closely pent within his brain He looked with an air of kindness at this worthy co glass against glass, ”Coives you soforth Mordioux! Speak freely, and quickly”
”Well, this is it,” replied Planchet: ”you appear toon some expedition or another”
”I don't say that I am not”
”Then you have some new idea?”
”That is possible, too, Planchet”
”Then there will be fresh capital to be ventured? I will lay down fifty thousand livres upon the idea you are about to carry out” And so saying, Planchet rubbed his hands one against the other with a rapidity evincing great delight
”Planchet,” said D'Artagnan, ”there is but one misfortune in it”
”And what is that?”
”That the idea is notupon it”
These words drew a deep sigh from the heart of Planchet That Avarice is an ardent counselor; she carries away her man, as Satan did Jesus, to the mountain, and when once she has shown to an unfortunate all the kingdo full well that she has left her conaw at his heart Planchet had tasted of riches easily acquired, and was never afterwards likely to stop in his desires; but, as he had a good heart in spite of his covetousness, as he adored D'Artagnan, he could not refrain fro him a thousand recommendations, each more affectionate than the others
He would not have been sorry, nevertheless, to have caught a little hint of the secret his master concealed so well; tricks, turns, counsels, and traps were all useless, D'Artagnan let nothing confidential escape hi passed thus After supper the portnan, he took a turn to the stable, patted his horse, and exa counted over hisas if only twenty, because he had neither inquietude nor remorse; he closed his eyes five ht, however, have kept hiht boiled in his brain, conjectures abounded, and D'Artagnan was a great drawer of horoscopes; but, with that ienius for the fortune and happiness of men of action, he put off reflection till the next day, for fear, he said, not to be fresh when he wanted to be so
The day came The Rue des Lombards had its share of the caresses of Aurora with the rosy fingers, and D'Artagnan arose like Aurora He did not awaken anybody, he placed his port one of thes in every story fro saddled his horse, shut the stable and house doors, he set off, at a foot-pace, on his expedition to Bretagne He had done quite right not to trouble himself with all the political and diplomatic affairs which solicited his attention; for, in the ht, his ideas developed themselves in purity and abundance In the first place, he passed before the house of Fouquet, and threw in a large gaping box the fortunate order which, the evening before, he had had so ers of the intendant Placed in an envelope, and addressed to Fouquet, it had not even been divined by Planchet, who in divination was equal to Calchas or the Pythian Apollo D'Artagnan thus sent back the order to Fouquet, without co thenceforward any reproaches to make himself When he had effected this proper restitution, ”Now,” he said to himself, ”let us inhale much maternal air, much freedom from cares, much health, let us allow the horse Zephyr, whose flanks puff as if he had to respire an atenious in our little calculations It is tin, and, according to the e head full of all sorts of good counsels, before the plan of the caenerals to e are opposed In the first place, M Fouquet presents hinan to hienerous man very much beloved by the poets; a man of wit, much execrated by pretenders Well, now I am neither woman, poet, nor pretender: I neither love not hate monsieur le surintendant I find myself, therefore, in the same position in which M Turenne found hieau, Gien and the Faubourg Saint-Antoine He did not execrateMonsieur le prince is an agreeable h, called Conde 'My cousin,' and swept away his ar wish? That does not concernM Colbert wishes all that M Fouquet does not wish Then what does M Fouquet wish? Oh, that is serious M Fouquet wishes precisely for all the king wishes”
Thishis histle in the air He was already on the high road, frightening the birds in the hedges, listening to the livres chinking and dancing in his leather pocket, at every step; and, let us confess it, every tinan found himself in such conditions, tenderness was not his dominant vice ”Coerous one; and it will fall out with e as with that piece M
Monk took me to see in London, which was called, I think, 'Much Ado about Nothing'”
Chapter LXVI The Journey
It was perhaps the fiftieth time since the day on which we open this history, that this man, with a heart of bronze and , in short, to go in search of fortune and death The one--that is to say, death--had constantly retreated before him, as if afraid of him; the other--that is to say, fortune--for only a h he was not a great philosopher, after the fashi+on of either Epicurus or Socrates, he was a powerful spirit, having knowledge of life, and endoith thought No one is as brave, as adventurous, or as skillful as D'Artagnan, without at the sa inclined to be a dreamer
He had picked up, here and there, so translated into Latin by MM de Port Royal; and he had made a collection, en passant, in the society of Athos and Aramis, of many morsels of Seneca and Cicero, translated by them, and applied to the uses of common life That contempt of riches which our Gascon had observed as an article of faith during the thirty-five first years of his life, had for a long time been considered by him as the first article of the code of bravery ”Article first,” said he, ”Abecause he despises riches” Therefore, with these principles, which, as we have said, had regulated the thirty-five first years of his life, D'Artagnan was no sooner possessed of riches, than he felt it necessary to ask himself if, in spite of his riches, he were still brave To this, for any other but D'Artagnan, the events of the Place de Greve ht have served as a reply Many consciences would have been satisfied with theh to ask himself sincerely and conscientiously if he were brave Therefore to this:--