CHAPTER 22
D'Artagnan travels for the House of Planchet and Company
The hostelry of "Le Grand Monarque" was situated in a little
street parallel to the port without looking out upon the
port itself. Some lanes cut -- as steps cut the two
parallels of the ladder -- the two great straight lines of
the port and the street. By these lanes passengers came
suddenly from the port into the street, or from the street
on to the port. D'Artagnan, arrived at the port, took one of
these lanes, and came out in front of the hostelry of "Le
Grand Monarque." The moment was well chosen and might remind
D'Artagnan of his start in life at the hostelry of the
"Franc-Meunier" at Meung. Some sailors who had been playing
at dice had started a quarrel, and were threatening each
other furiously. The host, hostess, and two lads were
watching with anxiety the circle of these angry gamblers,
from the midst of which war seemed ready to break forth,
bristling with knives and hatchets. The play, nevertheless,
was continued. A stone bench was occupied by two men, who
appeared thence to watch the door; four tables, placed at
the back of the common chamber, were occupied by eight other
individuals. Neither the men at the door, nor those at the
tables, took any part in the play or the quarrel. D'Artagnan
recognized his ten men in these cold, indifferent
spectators. The quarrel went on increasing. Every passion
has, like the sea, its tide which ascends and descends.
Reaching the climax of passion, one sailor overturned the
table and the money which was upon it. The table fell, and
the money rolled about. In an instant all belonging to the
hostelry threw themselves upon the stakes, and many a piece
of silver was picked up by people who stole away whilst the
sailors were scuffling with each other.
The two men on the bench and the eight at the tables,
although they seemed perfect strangers to each other, these
ten men alone, we say, appeared to have agreed to remain
impassible amidst the cries of fury and the chinking of
money. Two only contented themselves with pushing with their
feet combatants who came under their table. Two others,
rather than take part in this disturbance, buried their
hands in their pockets; and another two jumped upon the
table they occupied, as people do to avoid being submerged
by overflowing water.
"Come, come," said D'Artagnan to himself, not having lost
one of the details we have related, "this is a very fair
gathering -- circumspect, calm, accustomed to disturbance,
acquainted with blows! Peste! I have been lucky."
All at once his attention was called to a particular part of
the room. The two men who had pushed the strugglers with
their feet were assailed with abuse by the sailors, who had
become reconciled. One of them, half drunk with passion, and
quite drunk with beer, came, in a menacing manner, to demand
of the shorter of these two sages by what right he had
touched with his foot creatures of the good God, who were
not dogs. And whilst putting this question, in order to make
it more direct, he applied his great fist to the nose of
D'Artagnan's recruit.
This man became pale, without its being to be discerned
whether his pallor arose from anger or from fear; seeing
which, the sailor concluded it was from fear, and raised his
fist with the manifest intention of letting it fall upon the
head of the stranger. But though the threatened man did not
appear to move, he dealt the sailor such a severe blow in
the stomach that he sent him rolling and howling to the
other side of the room. At the same instant, rallied by the
esprit de corps, all the comrades of the conquered man fell
upon the conqueror.
The latter, with the same coolness of which he had given
proof, without committing the imprudence of touching his
weapons, took up a beer-pot with a pewter-lid, and knocked
down two or three of his assailants; then, as he was about
to yield to numbers, the seven other silent men at the
tables, who had not stirred, perceived that their cause was
at stake, and came to the rescue. At the same time, the two
indifferent spectators at the door turned round with
frowning brows, indicating their evident intention of taking
the enemy in the rear, if the enemy did not cease their
aggressions.
The host, his helpers, and two watchmen who were passing,
and who from curiosity had penetrated too far into the room,
were mixed up in the tumult and showered with blows. The
Parisians hit like Cyclops, with an ensemble and a tactic
delightful to behold. At length, obliged to beat a retreat
before superior numbers, they formed an intrenchment behind
the large table, which they raised by main force; whilst the
two others, arming themselves each with a trestle, and using
it like a great sledge-hammer, knocked down at a blow eight
sailors upon whose heads they had brought their monstrous
catapult in play. The floor was already strewn with wounded,
and the room filled with cries and dust, when D'Artagnan,
satisfied with the test, advanced, sword in hand, and
striking with the pommel every head that came in his way, he
uttered a vigorous hola! which put an instantaneous end to
the conflict. A great backflood directly took place from the
center to the sides of the room, so that D'Artagnan found
himself isolated and dominator.
"What is all this about?" then demanded he of the assembly,
with the majestic tone of Neptune pronouncing the Quos ego.
At the very instant, at the first sound of his voice, to
carry on the Virgilian metaphor, D'Artagnan's recruits,
recognizing each his sovereign lord, discontinued their
plank-fighting and trestle blows. On their side, the
sailors, seeing that long naked sword, that martial air, and
the agile arm which came to the rescue of their enemies, in
the person of a man who seemed accustomed to command, the
sailors picked up their wounded and their pitchers. The
Parisians wiped their brows, and viewed their leader with
respect. D'Artagnan was loaded with thanks by the host of
"Le Grand Monarque." He received them like a man who knows
that nothing is being offered that does not belong to him,
and then said he would go and walk upon the port till supper
was ready. Immediately each of the recruits, who understood
the summons, took his hat, brushed the dust off his clothes,
and followed D'Artagnan. But D'Artagnan whilst walking and
observing, took care not to stop; he directed his course
towards the downs, and the ten men -- surprised at finding
themselves going in the track of each other, uneasy at
seeing on their right, on their left, and behind them,
companions upon whom they had not reckoned -- followed him,
casting furtive glances at each other. It was not till he
had arrived at the hollow part of the deepest down that
D'Artagnan, smiling to see them outdone, turned towards
them, making a friendly sign with his hand.
"Eh! come, come, gentlemen," said he, "let us not devour
each other; you are made to live together, to understand
each other in all respects, and not to devour one another."
Instantly all hesitation ceased; the men breathed as if they
had been taken out of a coffin, and examined each other
complacently. After this examination they turned their eyes
towards their leader, who had long been acquainted with the
art of speaking to men of that class, and who improvised the
following little speech, pronounced with an energy truly
Gascon:
"Gentlemen, you all know who I am. I have engaged you from
knowing you to be brave, and willing to associate you with
me in a glorious enterprise. Imagine that in laboring for me
you labor for the king. I only warn you that if you allow
anything of this supposition to appear, I shall be forced to
crack your skulls immediately, in the manner most convenient
to me. You are not ignorant, gentlemen, that state secrets
are like a mortal poison: as long as that poison is in its
box and the box is closed, it is not injurious; out of the
box, it kills. Now draw near and you shall know as much of
this secret as I am able to tell you." All drew close to him
with an expression of curiosity. "Approach," continued
D'Artagnan, "and let not the bird which passes over our
heads, the rabbit which sports on the downs, the fish which
bounds from the waters, hear us. Our business is to learn
and to report to monsieur le surintendant of the finances to
what extent English smuggling is injurious to the French
merchants. I shall enter every place, and see everything. We
are poor Picard fishermen, thrown upon the coast by a storm.
It is certain that we must sell fish, neither more nor less,
like true fishermen. Only people might guess who we are, and
might molest us; it is therefore necessary that we should be
in a condition to defend ourselves. And this is why I have
selected men of spirit and courage. We shall lead a steady
life, and not incur much danger; seeing that we have behind
us a powerful protector, thanks to whom no embarrassment is
possible. One thing alone puzzles me; but I hope that after
a short explanation, you will relieve me from that
difficulty. The thing which puzzles me is taking with me a
crew of stupid fishermen, which crew will annoy me
immensely, whilst if, by chance, there were among you any
who have seen the sea ---- "
"Oh! don't let that trouble you," said one of the recruits;
"I was a prisoner among the pirates of Tunis three years,
and can maneuver a boat like an admiral."
"See," said D'Artagnan, "what an admirable thing chance is!"
D'Artagnan pronounced these words with an indefinable tone
of feigned bonhomie, for he knew very well that the victim
of pirates was an old corsair, and had engaged him in
consequence of that knowledge. But D'Artagnan never said
more than there was need to say, in order to leave people in
doubt. He paid himself with the explanation, and welcomed
the effect, without appearing to be preoccupied with the
cause.
"And I," said a second, "I, by chance, had an uncle who
directed the works of the port of La Rochelle. When quite a
child, I played about the boats, and I know how to handle an
oar or a sail as well as the best Ponantais sailor." The
latter did not lie much more than the first, for he had
rowed on board his majesty's galleys six years, at Ciotat.
Two others were more frank: they confessed honestly that
they had served on board a vessel as soldiers on punishment,
and did not blush for it. D'Artagnan found himself, then,
the leader of ten men of war and four sailors, having at
once a land army and a sea force, which would have earned
the pride of Planchet to its height, if Planchet had known
the details.
Nothing was now left but arranging the general orders, and
D'Artagnan gave them with precision. He enjoined his men to
be ready to set out for the Hague, some following the coast
which leads to Breskens, others the road to Antwerp. The
rendezvous was given, by calculating each day's march, a
fortnight from that time upon the chief place at the Hague.
D'Artagnan recommended his men to go in couples, as they
liked best, from sympathy. He himself selected from among
those with the least disreputable look, two guards whom he
had formerly known, and whose only faults were being
drunkards and gamblers. These men had not entirely lost all
ideas of civilization, and under proper garments their
hearts would beat again. D'Artagnan, not to create any
jealousy with the others, made the rest go forward. He kept
his two selected ones, clothed them from his own wardrobe,
and set out with them.
It was to these two, whom he seemed to honor with an
absolute confidence, that D'Artagnan imparted a false
secret, destined to secure the success of the expedition. He
confessed to them that the object was not to learn to what
extent the French merchants were injured by English
smuggling, but to learn how far French smuggling could annoy
English trade. These men appeared convinced; they were
effectively so. D'Artagnan was quite sure that at the first
debauch when thoroughly drunk, one of the two would divulge
the secret to the whole band. His game appeared infallible.
A fortnight after all we have said had taken place at
Calais, the whole troop assembled at the Hague.
Then D'Artagnan perceived that all his men, with remarkable
intelligence, had already travestied themselves into
sailors, more or less ill-treated by the sea. D'Artagnan
left them to sleep in a den in Newkerke street, whilst he
lodged comfortably upon the Grand Canal. He learned that the
king of England had come back to his old ally, William II.
of Nassau, stadtholder of Holland. He learned also that the
refusal of Louis XIV. had a little cooled the protection
afforded him up to that time, and in consequence he had gone
to reside in a little village house at Scheveningen,
situated in the downs, on the sea-shore, about a league from
the Hague.
There, it was said, the unfortunate banished king consoled
himself in his exile, by looking, with the melancholy
peculiar to the princes of his race, at that immense North
Sea, which separated him from his England, as it had
formerly separated Mary Stuart from France. There behind the
trees of the beautiful wood of Scheveningen on the fine sand
upon which grows the golden broom of the down, Charles II.
vegetated as it did, more unfortunate, for he had life and
thought, and he hoped and despaired by turns.
D'Artagnan went once as far as Scheveningen, in order to be
certain that all was true that was said of the king. He
beheld Charles II., pensive and alone, coming out of a
little door opening into the wood, and walking on the beach
in the setting sun, without even attracting the attention of
the fishermen, who, on their return in the evening, drew,
like the ancient mariners of the Archipelago, their barks up
upon the sand of the shore.
D'Artagnan recognized the king; he saw him fix his
melancholy look upon the immense extent of the waters, and
absorb upon his pale countenance the red rays of the sun
already cut by the black line of the horizon. Then Charles
returned to his isolated abode, always alone, slow and sad,
amusing himself with making the friable and moving sand
creak beneath his feet.
That very evening D'Artagnan hired for a thousand livres a
fishing-boat worth four thousand. He paid a thousand livres
down, and deposited the three thousand with a Burgomaster,
after which he brought on board without their being seen,
the ten men who formed his land army; and with the rising
tide, at three o'clock in the morning, he got into the open
sea, maneuvering ostensibly with the four others, and
depending upon the science of his galley slave as upon that
of the first pilot of the port.
