11.
Wealth Does Not Necessarily Produce Happiness.
DArtagnan passed through the iron gate and arrived in front of the chateau. He alighted as he saw a species of giant on the steps. Let us do justice to DArtagnan. Independently of every selfish wish, his heart palpitated with joy when he saw that tall form and martial demeanor, which recalled to him a good and brave man.
He ran to Porthos and threw himself into his arms; the whole body of servants, arranged in a semicircle at a respectful distance, looked on with humble curiosity. Mousqueton, at the head of them, wiped his eyes. Porthos linked his arm in that of his friend.
"Ah! how delightful to see you again, dear friend!" he cried, in a voice which was now changed from a baritone into a bass, "youve not then forgotten me?"
"Forget you! oh! dear Du Vallon, does one forget the happiest days of flowery youth, ones dearest friends, the dangers we have dared together? On the contrary, there is not an hour we have passed together that is not present to my memory."
"Yes, yes," said Porthos, trying to give to his mustache a curl which it had lost whilst he had been alone. "Yes, we did some fine things in our time and we gave that poor cardinal a few threads to unravel."
And he heaved a sigh.
"Under any circumstances," he resumed, "you are welcome, my dear friend; you will help me to recover my spirits; tomorrow we will hunt the hare on my plain, which is a superb tract of land, or pursue the deer in my woods, which are magnificent. I have four harriers which are considered the swiftest in the county, and a pack of hounds which are unequalled for twenty leagues around."
And Porthos heaved another sigh.
"But, first," interposed DArtagnan, "you must present me to Madame du Vallon."
A third sigh from Porthos.
"I lost Madame du Vallon two years ago," he said, "and you find me still in affliction on that account. That was the reason why I left my Chateau du Vallon near Corbeil, and came to my estate, Bracieux. Poor Madame du Vallon! her temper was uncertain, but she came at last to accustom herself to my little ways and understand my little wishes."
"So you are free now, and rich?"
"Alas!" groaned Porthos, "I am a widower and have forty thousand francs a year. Let us go to breakfast."
"I shall be happy to do so; the morning air has made me hungry."
"Yes," said Porthos; "my air is excellent."
They went into the chateau; there was nothing but gilding, high and low; the cornices were gilt, the mouldings were gilt, the legs and arms of the chairs were gilt. A table, ready set out, awaited them.
"You see," said Porthos, "this is my usual style."
"Devil take me!" answered DArtagnan, "I wish you joy of it. The king has nothing like it."
"No," answered Porthos, "I hear it said that he is very badly fed by the cardinal, Monsieur de Mazarin. Taste this cutlet, my dear DArtagnan; tis off one of my sheep."
"You have very tender mutton and I wish you joy of it." said DArtagnan.
"Yes, the sheep are fed in my meadows, which are excellent pasture."
"Give me another cutlet."
"No, try this hare, which I had killed yesterday in one of my warrens."
"Zounds! what a flavor!" cried DArtagnan; "ah! they are fed on thyme only, your hares."
"And how do you like my wine?" asked Porthos; "it is pleasant, isnt it?"
"Capital!"
"It is nothing, however, but a wine of the country."
"Really?"
"Yes, a small declivity to the south, yonder on my hill, gives me twenty hogsheads."
"Quite a vineyard, hey?"
Porthos sighed for the fifth timeDArtagnan had counted his sighs. He became curious to solve the problem.
"Well now," he said, "it seems, my dear friend, that something vexes you; you are ill, perhaps? That health, which"
"Excellent, my dear friend; better than ever. I could kill an ox with a blow of my fist."
"Well, then, family affairs, perhaps?"
"Family! I have, happily, only myself in the world to care for."
"But what makes you sigh?"
"My dear fellow," replied Porthos, "to be candid with you, I am not happy."
"You are not happy, Porthos? You who have chateau, meadows, mountains, woodsyou who have forty thousand francs a yearyouarenothappy?"
"My dear friend, all those things I have, but I am a hermit in the midst of superfluity."
"Surrounded, I suppose, only by clodhoppers, with whom you could not associate."
Porthos turned rather pale and drank off a large glass of wine.
"No; but just think, there are paltry country squires who have all some title or another and pretend to go back as far as Charlemagne, or at least to Hugh Capet. When I first came here; being the last comer, it was for me to make the first advances. I made them, but you know, my dear friend, Madame du Vallon"
Porthos, in pronouncing these words, seemed to gulp down something.
"Madame du Vallon was of doubtful gentility. She had, in her first marriageI dont think, DArtagnan, I am telling you anything newmarried a lawyer; they thought that nauseous; you can understand thats a word bad enough to make one kill thirty thousand men. I have killed two, which has made people hold their tongues, but has not made me their friend. So that I have no society; I live alone; I am sick of itmy mind preys on itself."
DArtagnan smiled. He now saw where the breastplate was weak, and prepared the blow.
"But now," he said, "that you are a widower, your wifes connection cannot injure you."
"Yes, but understand me; not being of a race of historic fame, like the De Courcys, who were content to be plain sirs, or the Rohans, who didnt wish to be dukes, all these people, who are all either vicomtes or comtes go before me at church in all the ceremonies, and I can say nothing to them. Ah! If I only were a"
"A baron, dont you mean?" cried DArtagnan, finishing his friends sentence.
"Ah!" cried Porthos; "would I were but a baron!"
"Well, my friend, I am come to give you this very title which you wish for so much."
Porthos gave a start that shook the room; two or three bottles fell and were broken. Mousqueton ran thither, hearing the noise.
Porthos waved his hand to Mousqueton to pick up the bottles.
Porthos waved his hand to Mousqueton to pick up the bottles.
"I am glad to see," said DArtagnan, "that you have still that honest lad with you."
"He is my steward," replied Porthos; "he will never leave me. Go away now, Mouston."
"So hes called Mouston," thought DArtagnan; "tis too long a word to pronounce Mousqueton."
"Well," he said aloud, "let us resume our conversation later, your people may suspect something; there may be spies about. You can suppose, Porthos, that what I have to say relates to most important matters."
"Devil take them; let us walk in the park," answered Porthos, "for the sake of digestion."
"Egad," said DArtagnan, "the park is like everything else and there are as many fish in your pond as rabbits in your warren; you are a happy man, my friend since you have not only retained your love of the chase, but acquired that of fishing."
"My friend," replied Porthos, "I leave fishing to Mousqueton,it is a vulgar pleasure,but I shoot sometimes; that is to say, when I am dull, and I sit on one of those marble seats, have my gun brought to me, my favorite dog, and I shoot rabbits."
"Really, how very amusing!"
"Yes," replied Porthos, with a sigh, "it is amusing."
DArtagnan now no longer counted the sighs. They were innumerable.
"However, what had you to say to me?" he resumed; "let us return to that subject."
"With pleasure," replied DArtagnan; "I must, however, first frankly tell you that you must change your mode of life."
"How?"
"Go into harness again, gird on your sword, run after adventures, and leave as in old times a little of your fat on the roadside."
"Ah! hang it!" said Porthos.
"I see you are spoiled, dear friend; you are corpulent, your arm has no longer that movement of which the late cardinals guards have so many proofs."
"Ah! my fist is strong enough I swear," cried Porthos, extending a hand like a shoulder of mutton.
"So much the better."
"Are we then to go to war?"
"By my troth, yes."
"Against whom?"
"Are you a politician, friend?"
"Not in the least."
"Are you for Mazarin or for the princes?"
"I am for no one."
"That is to say, you are for us. Well, I tell you that I come to you from the cardinal."
This speech was heard by Porthos in the same sense as if it had still been in the year 1640 and related to the true cardinal.
"Ho! ho! What are the wishes of his eminence?"
"He wishes to have you in his service."
"And who spoke to him of me?"
"Rochefortyou remember him?"
"Yes, pardieu! It was he who gave us so much trouble and kept us on the road so much; you gave him three swordwounds in three separate engagements."
"But you know he is now our friend?"
"No, I didnt know that. So he cherishes no resentment?"
"You are mistaken, Porthos," said DArtagnan. "It is I who cherish no resentment."
Porthos didnt understand any too clearly; but then we know that understanding was not his strong point. "You say, then," he continued, "that the Count de Rochefort spoke of me to the cardinal?"
"Yes, and the queen, too."
"The queen, do you say?"
"To inspire us with confidence she has even placed in Mazarins hands that famous diamondyou remember all about itthat I once sold to Monsieur des Essarts and of which, I dont know how, she has regained possession."
"But it seems to me," said Porthos, "that she would have done much better if she had given it back to you."
"So I think," replied DArtagnan; "but kings and queens are strange beings and have odd fancies; nevertheless, since they are the ones who have riches and honors, we are devoted to them."
"Yes, we are devoted to them," repeated Porthos; "and youto whom are you devoted now?"
"To the king, the queen, and to the cardinal; moreover, I have answered for your devotion also."
"And you say that you have made certain conditions on my behalf?"
"Magnificent, my dear fellow, magnificent! In the first place you have plenty of money, havent you? forty thousand francs income, I think you said."
Porthos began to be suspicious. "Eh! my friend," said he, "one never has too much money. Madame du Vallon left things in much disorder; I am not much of a hand at figures, so that I live almost from hand to mouth."
"He is afraid I have come to borrow money," thought DArtagnan. "Ah, my friend," said he, "it is all the better if you are in difficulties."