The Three Musketeers | Page 8

faintness seized him, a
cloud of blood passed over his eyes, and he fell in the middle of the street, crying still,
"Coward! coward! coward!"
"He is a coward, indeed," grumbled the host, drawing near to d'Artagnan, and
endeavoring by this little flattery to make up matters with the young man, as the heron of
the fable did with the snail he had despised the evening before.
"Yes, a base coward," murmured d'Artagnan; "but she--she was very beautiful."
"What she?" demanded the host.
"Milady," faltered d'Artagnan, and fainted a second time.
"Ah, it's all one," said the host; "I have lost two customers, but this one remains, of whom
I am pretty certain for some days to come. There will be eleven crowns gained."
It is to be remembered that eleven crowns was just the sum that remained in d'Artagnan's
purse.
The host had reckoned upon eleven days of confinement at a crown a day, but he had
reckoned without his guest. On the following morning at five o'clock d'Artagnan arose,
and descending to the kitchen without help, asked, among other ingredients the list of
which has not come down to us, for some oil, some wine, and some rosemary, and with
his mother's recipe in his hand composed a balsam, with which he anointed his numerous
wounds, replacing his bandages himself, and positively refusing the assistance of any
doctor, d'Artagnan walked about that same evening, and was almost cured by the
morrow.
But when the time came to pay for his rosemary, this oil, and the wine, the only expense
the master had incurred, as he had preserved a strict abstinence--while on the contrary,
the yellow horse, by the account of the hostler at least, had eaten three times as much as a
horse of his size could reasonably supposed to have done--d'Artagnan found nothing in
his pocket but his little old velvet purse with the eleven crowns it contained; for as to the
letter addressed to M. de Treville, it had disappeared.
The young man commenced his search for the letter with the greatest patience, turning
out his pockets of all kinds over and over again, rummaging and rerummaging in his
valise, and opening and reopening his purse; but when he found that he had come to the
conviction that the letter was not to be found, he flew, for the third time, into such a rage
as was near costing him a fresh consumption of wine, oil, and rosemary--for upon seeing
this hot- headed youth become exasperated and threaten to destroy everything in the
establishment if his letter were not found, the host seized a spit, his wife a broom handle,
and the servants the same sticks they had used the day before.
"My letter of recommendation!" cried d'Artagnan, "my letter of recommendation! or, the
holy blood, I will spit you all like ortolans!"

Unfortunately, there was one circumstance which created a powerful obstacle to the
accomplishment of this threat; which was, as we have related, that his sword had been in
his first conflict broken in two, and which he had entirely forgotten. Hence, it resulted
when d'Artagnan proceeded to draw his sword in earnest, he found himself purely and
simply armed with a stump of a sword about eight or ten inches in length, which the host
had carefully placed in the scabbard. As to the rest of the blade, the master had slyly put
that on one side to make himself a larding pin.
But this deception would probably not have stopped our fiery young man if the host had
not reflected that the reclamation which his guest made was perfectly just.
"But, after all," said he, lowering the point of his spit, "where is this letter?"
"Yes, where is this letter?" cried d'Artagnan. "In the first place, I warn you that that letter
is for Monsieur de Treville, and it must be found, he will know how to find it."
His threat completed the intimidation of the host. After the king and the cardinal, M. de
Treville was the man whose name was perhaps most frequently repeated by the military,
and even by citizens. There was, to be sure, Father Joseph, but his name was never
pronounced but with a subdued voice, such was the terror inspired by his Gray Eminence,
as the cardinal's familiar was called.
Throwing down his spit, and ordering his wife to do the same with her broom handle, and
the servants with their sticks, he set the first example of commencing an earnest search
for the lost letter.
"Does the letter contain anything valuable?" demanded the host, after a few minutes of
useless investigation.
"Zounds! I think it does indeed!" cried the Gascon, who reckoned upon this letter for
making his way at court. "It contained my fortune!"
"Bills