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Chapter XLIII
Chapter XLIII
The Auberge Of The Columbier Rouge
In the meanwhile, the king, although scarcely arrived, who was in such
haste to face the enemy, and who, with more reason than the cardinal, showed
his hatred for Buckingham, commanded every disposition to be made to drive
the English from the Isle of Re, and afterward to press the siege of La
Rochelle; but, notwithstanding his earnest wish, he was delayed by the
dissensions which broke out between MM. Bassompierre and Schomberg against
the Duke d`Angouleme.
MM. Bassompierre and Schomberg were marshals of France, and claimed
their right of commanding the army under the orders of the king; but the
cardinal, who feared that Bassompierre, a Huguenot at heart, might press the
English and Rochellais, his brothers in religion, but feebly, supported the
Duke d`Angouleme, whom the king, at his instigation, had named
lieutenant-general. The result was, that, to avoid seeing MM. Bassompierre
and Schomberg desert the army, a separate command was forced to be given to
each: Bassompierre took up his quarters to the north of the city between La
Leu and Dompierre; the Duke d`Angouleme to the east, from Dompierre to
Perigny; and M. de Schomberg to the south, from Perigny to Angoutin.
The quarters of monsieur were at Dompierre. The quarters of the king
were sometimes at Etre, sometimes at La Jairie. The cardinal`s quarters were
upon the downs, at the bridge of La Pierre, in a simple house without any
entrenchment.
So that monsieur watched Bassompierre; the king, the Duke d`Angouleme;
and the cardinal, M. de Schomberg.
As soon as this organization was established, they set about driving the
English from the Isle.
The conjuncture was favorable; the English, who required, above
everything, good living, in order to be good soldiers, only eating salt meat
and bad biscuit, had many sick in their camp; still further, the sea, very
bad at this period of the year on all the coasts of the ocean, destroyed
every day some little vessel or other, and the shore, from the point of
L`Arguillon to the trenches, was at every tide literally covered with the
wrecks of pinnaces, roberges and feluccas; it resulted that even if the
king`s troops remained quietly in their camp, it was evident that some day
or other, Buckingham, who only continued in the isle from obstinacy, would
be obliged to raise the siege.
But as M. de Toirac gave information that everything was preparing in
the enemy`s camp for a fresh assault, the king judged that it would be best
to put an end to the affair, and gave the necessary orders for a decisive
action.
It not being our intention to make a journal of the siege, but, on the
contrary only to describe such of the events of it as are connected with the
history we are relating, we will content ourselves with saying in two words
that the expedition succeeded, to the great astonishment of the king, and the
great glory of Monsieur le Cardinal. The English, repulsed foot by foot,
beaten in all the rencounters, and defeated in the passage of L`Ile de Loix,
were obliged to re-embark, leaving on the field of battle two thousand men,
among whom were five colonels, three lieutenant-colonels, two hundred and
fifty captains, and twenty gentlemen of rank, four pieces of cannon, and
sixty colors, which were taken to Paris by Claude de St. Simon, and suspended
with great pomp in the vaults of Notre Dame.
Te Deums were sung in the camp, and afterward throughout France.
The cardinal was left master of carrying on the siege without having,
at least at the present, anything to fear on the part of the English.
But, as we have just said, this repose was but for the moment.
An envoy of the Duke of Buckingham, named Montague, was taken, and proof
was obtained of a league between the empire, Spain, England, and Lorraine.
This league was directed against France.
Still further, in Buckingham`s quarters, which he had been forced to
abandon more precipitately than he expected, papers were found which
confirmed this league, and which, as the cardinal asserts in his memoirs,
strongly compromised Madame de Chevreuse, and consequently the queen.
It was upon the cardinal that all the responsibility fell, for there is
no being a despotic minister without responsibility; all, therefore, of the
vast resources of his genius were at work night and day, and engaged in
listening to the least report that was to be heard in any of the great
kingdoms of Europe.
The cardinal was acquainted with the activity, and, more particularly,
with the hatred, of Buckingham; if the league which threatened France
triumphed, all his influence would be lost; Spanish policy and Austrian
policy would have their representatives in the cabinet of the Louvre, where
they had as yet but partisans; and he, Richelieu, the French minister, the
national minister, would be ruined. The king, who, while obeying him like
a child, hated him as a child hates his master, would abandon him to the
personal vengeance of monsieur and the queen; he would then be lost, and
France, perhaps, with him. All this must be guarded against.
Thus, couriers, becoming every instant more numerous, succeeded each
other, day and night, in the little house of the bridge of La Pierre, in
which the cardinal had established his residence.
These were monks who wore the frock with such an ill grace, that it was
easy to perceive they belonged to the church militant; women, a little
inconvenienced by their costume of pages, and whose large trousers could not
entirely conceal their rounded forms: and peasants with blackened hands and
fine limbs, savoring of the man of quality a league off.
In addition to these there were less agreeable visits, for two or three
times reports were spread that the cardinal had nearly been assassinated.
It is true that the enemies of the cardinal said that it was he himself
who set these bungling assassins to work, in order to have, if wanted, the
right of using reprisals - but we must not believe everything ministers say,
nor everything their enemies say.
But these attempts did not prevent the cardinal, to whom his most
inveterate detractors have never denied personal bravery, from making
nocturnal excursions, sometimes to communicate to the Duke d`Angouleme some
important orders; sometimes to go and confer with the king; and sometimes to
have an interview with a messenger whom he did not wish to see at home.
On their part, the musketeers, who had not much to do with the siege,
were not under very strict orders, and led a joyous life. This was the more
easy for our three companions in particular, as being friends of M. de
Treville`s they obtained from him permission to be absent after the closing
of the camp.
Now, one evening, when D`Artagnan, who was in the trenches, was not able
to accompany them, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, mounted upon their
battle-steeds, enveloped in their war cloaks, with their hands upon their
pistol-butts, were returning from a buvette which Athos had discovered two
days before upon the route to La Jairie, called the Colombier Rouge,
following the road which led to the camp, and quite upon their guard, as we
have stated, for fear of an ambuscade, when at about a quarter of a league
from the village of Boinar, they fancied they heard the sound of horses
approaching them. They immediately all three halted, closed in, and waited,
occupying the middle of the road. At the end of an instant, and as the moon
broke from behind a cloud, they saw, at a turning of the road, two horsemen
who, on perceiving them, stopped in their turn, appearing to deliberate
whether they should continue their route or go back. The hesitation created
some suspicion in the three friends, and Athos, advancing a few paces in
front of the others, cried in a firm voice.
"Who goes there?"
"Who goes there, yourselves?" replied one of the horsemen.
"That is not an answer," replied Athos. "Who goes there? Answer, or
else we charge."
"Beware of what you are about, gentlemen!" said a clear voice, which
appeared accustomed to command.
"It is some superior officer, making his night-rounds," said Athos,
"what do you mean to do, gentlemen?"
"Who are you?" said the same voice in the same commanding tone; "answer
in your turn, or you may repent of your disobedience."
"King`s musketeers," said Athos, still more convinced that he who
interrogated them had the right to do so.
"Of what company?"
"Company of Treville."
"Advance, and render me an account of what you are doing here at this
time of night."
The three companions advanced rather humbly, for all were now convinced
that they had to do with some one more powerful than themselves, leaving
Athos the post of speaker.
"Your pardon, mon officer!" said Athos; "but we were ignorant of whom
we were speaking to, and you may see that we were keeping good guard."
"Your name?" said the officer, a part of whose face was covered by his
cloak.
"But yourself, monsieur," said Athos, who began to be annoyed by this
inquisition, "give me, I beg you, the proof that you have the right to
question me."
"Your name?" repeated the cavalier a second time, letting his cloak
fall, and leaving his face uncovered.
"Monsieur le Cardinal!" cried the stupefied musketeers.
"Your name?" cried the cardinal for the third time.
"Athos!" said the musketeer.
The cardinal made a sign to his attendant, who drew near to him:
"These three musketeers shall follow us," said he in an under voice, "I
am not willing it should be known I have left the camp; and by following us
we shall be certain they will tell nobody."
"We are gentlemen, monseigneur," said Athos, "require our parole, and
give yourself no uneasiness. Thank God! we can keep a secret."
"You have a quick ear, Monsieur Athos," said the cardinal; "but now
listen to this; it is not from mistrust that I request you to follow me, but
for my security; your companions are, no doubt MM. Porthos and Aramis."
"Yes, your eminence," said Athos, while the two musketeers who had
remained behind, advanced, hat in hand.
"I know you, gentlemen," said the cardinal, "I know you; I know you are
not quite my friends, and I am sorry you are not so; but I know you are brave
and loyal gentlemen, and that confidence may be placed in you. Monsieur
Athos, do me, then, the honor to accompany me, you and your two friends, and
then I shall have on escort to excite envy in his majesty, if we should meet
him."
The three musketeers bowed to the necks of their horses.
"Well, upon my honor," said Athos, "your eminence is right in taking us
with you; we have seen several ill-looking faces on the road, and we have
even had a quarrel at the Colombier Rouge with four of those faces."
"A quarrel, and what for, gentlemen?" said the cardinal; "you know I
don`t like quarrels."
"And that is the reason why I have the honor to inform your eminence of
what has happened; for you might learn it from others, and upon a false
account, believe us to be in fault."
"What have been the results of your quarrel?" said the cardinal,
knitting his brow.
"My friend Aramis, here, has received a slight sword-wound in the arm,
but not enough to prevent him, as your eminence may see, from mounting to the
assault to-morrow, if your eminence orders an escalade."
"But you are not the men to allow sword-wounds to be inflicted upon you
thus," said the cardinal; "come, be frank, gentlemen, you have given a good
account of some persons; confess, you know I have the right of giving
absolution."
"Who? I! monseigneur?" said Athos. "I did not even draw my sword, but
I took him who offended me round the body, and threw him out of the window;
it appears that in falling," continued Athos, with some hesitation, "he broke
his thigh."
"Ah! Ah!" said the cardinal; "and you, Monsieur Porthos?"
"I, monseigneur, knowing that duelling is prohibited, I seized a bench,
and gave one of these brigands such a blow, that I believe his shoulder is
broken."
"Very well!" said the cardinal; "and you, Monsieur Aramis?"
"For my part, monseigneur, being of a very mild disposition, and being
likewise, of which monseigneur, perhaps, is not aware, about to enter into
orders, I endeavored to appease my comrades, when one of these wretches gave
me a wound with a sword, treacherously, across my left arm; then I admit my
patience failed me; I drew my sword in my turn, and as he came back to the
charge, I fancied I felt that in throwing himself upon me, he let it pass
through his body: I only know, for a certainty, that he fell, and that he
appeared to be borne away with his two companions."
"The devil, gentlemen!" said the cardinal, "three men placed hors de
combat in a cabaret squabble! you don`t do your work by halves; and pray
what was this quarrel about?"
"These fellows were drunk," said Athos, "and knowing there was a lady
who had arrived at the cabaret this evening, they wanted to force her door."
"Force her door!" said the cardinal, "and for what purpose?"
"To do her violence, without doubt," said Athos; "I have had the honor
of informing your eminence that these men were drunk."
"And was this lady young and handsome?" asked the cardinal, with a
certain degree of anxiety.
"We did not see her, monseigneur," said Athos.
"You did not see her! ah! very well," replied the cardinal quickly;
"you acted quite rightly in defending the honor of a woman; and as I am going
to the Colombier Rouge myself, I shall know whether you have told me the
truth or not."
"Monseigneur," said Athos haughtily, "we are gentlemen, and to save our
heads we would not be guilty of a falsehood."
"Therefore, I do not doubt what you say, Monsieur Athos, I do not doubt
it for a single instant; but," added he, to change the conversation, "was
this lady alone?"
"The lady had a cavalier shut up with her," said Athos, "but as
notwithstanding the noise, this cavalier did not show himself, it is to be
presumed that he is a coward."
"Judge not rashly, says the Gospel," replied the cardinal.
Athos bowed.
"And now, gentlemen, that`s all very well," continued the cardinal. "I
know what I wish to know; follow me."
The three musketeers passed behind his eminence, who again enveloped his
face in his cloak, and put his horse in motion, keeping at from eight to ten
paces in advance of his companions.
They soon arrived at the silent, solitary auberge; no doubt the host
knew what illustrious visitor he expected, and had consequently sent
intruders out of the way.
At ten paces from the door the cardinal made a sign to his attendant and
the three musketeers to halt; a saddled horse was fastened to the
window-shutter, the cardinal knocked three times, and in peculiar manner.
A man, enveloped in a cloak, came out immediately, and exchanged some
rapid words with the cardinal; after which he mounted his horse, and set off
in the direction of Surgeres, which was likewise that of Paris.
"Advance, gentlemen," said the cardinal.
"You have told me the truth, gentlemen," said he, addressing the
musketeers, "and it will not be my fault if our rencounter of this evening
be not advantageous to you: in the meantime, follow me."
The cardinal alighted, the three musketeers did so likewise; the
cardinal threw the bridle of his horse to his attendant, the three musketeers
fastened their horses to the shutter.
The host stood at the door; for him, the cardinal was only an officer
coming to visit a lady.
"Have you any chamber on the ground flood where these gentlemen can
wait, near a good fire?" said the cardinal.
The host opened the door of a large room, in which an old bad stove had
just been replaced by a large and excellent chimney.
"I have this, monsieur," said he.
"That will do," replied the cardinal; "come in, gentlemen, and be kind
enough to wait for me; I shall not be more than half an hour."
And while the three musketeers entered the ground-floor room, the
cardinal, without asking further information, ascended the staircase like a
man who has no need of having his road pointed out to him.
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