Alexandre Dumas - The Three Musketeers

“During the day, Madame de Lannoy, in her office of tirewoman to the queen, looked for this casket, appeared uneasy at not finding it, and ended by inquiring for it of the queen.”

“And then the queen—”

“The queen blushed deeply, and answered that, having the evening before broken one of the studs, she had sent it to her jeweller’s to be repaired.”

“You must go there, and ascertain whether that is true, or not.”

“I have been.”

“Well, and the goldsmith—?”

“The goldsmith has heard nothing about it.”

“Good! good! Rochefort, all is not lost, and perhaps—perhaps all is for the best!”

“The fact is, that I have no doubt but what the genius of your eminence—”

“May repair the errors of my agent! Is that what you mean?”

“It was just what I was about to say, if your eminence had permitted me to finish the sentence.”

“Now, do you know where the Duchesse de Chevreuse and the Duke of Buckingham concealed themselves?”

“No, my lord; my agents have no positive information upon that point.”

“I know it myself, though.”

“You! my lord?”

“Yes, or at least I have no doubt of it. They lived, the one in the Rue Vaugirard, at No. 25, and the other in the Rue de la Harpe, No. 75.”

“Would your eminence wish me to arrest them both?”

“It is too late; they will be gone.”

“Never mind; there is no harm in trying!”

“Take ten of my guards, and ransack the two houses.”

“It shall be done, my lord!”

So saying, Rochefort rushed from the room.

When the cardinal was left alone, he remained a moment in thought, and then rang a third time.

The officer who had come before appeared again.

“Bring in the prisoner,” said the cardinal.

Master Bonancieux was again brought in, and, at a sign from the cardinal, the officer withdrew.

“You have deceived me,” said the cardinal, with great severity.

“I!” cried Bonancieux; “I deceive your eminence!”

“When your wife went to the Rue Vaugirard, and the Rue de la Harpe, she did not go to linen-drapers.”

“Good God! To whom did she go, then?”

“She went to see the Duchesse de Chevreuse, and the Duke of Buckingham.”

“Yes!” said Bonancieux, with a flash of recollection; “yes, exactly so; your eminence is right. I often told my wife that it was astonishing that linen-drapers should live in such houses; in houses which had no signs; and every time I said so, my wife began to laugh. Ah! my lord!” he continued, throwing himself at the feet of his eminence, “it is plain that you are the cardinal, the great cardinal—the man of genius, whom all the world reveres!”

The cardinal, small as was the triumph to be achieved over a being so vulgar as was Bonancieux, did not the less enjoy it for a moment. Then, as if a new idea struck him, he smiled, and, stretching out his hand to the mercer—

“Rise, my friend,” said he, “you are a worthy fellow.”

“The cardinal has taken my hand! I have touched the hand of the great man!” exclaimed Bonancieux; “the great man has called me his friend!”

“Yes, my friend, yes,” said the cardinal, in that paternal tone which he was sometimes able to assume, but which only deceived those who did not know him; “and as you have been unjustly suspected, we must make you some amends. Here, take this bag of a hundred pistoles, and forgive me.”

“ I forgive you , my lord!” said Bonancieux, hesitating to take the bag, from a fear that this supposed gift was only a jest. “But you were quite at liberty to have me arrested; you are quite at liberty to send me to the torture; you are quite at liberty to hang me; you are the master, and I should not have the smallest word to say against it. Forgive you, my lord! But you cannot mean that!”

“Ah! my dear M. Bonancieux, you are very generous; I see it, and I thank you. But you must take this bag, and then you will go away not very discontented—will you?”

“I go away perfectly enchanted, my lord!”

“Adieu, then; or, rather, au revoir hair; for I hope that we shall see each other again.”

“As often as my lord may please; I am at your eminence’s command.”

“It shall be often, depend upon it; for I have found your conversation quite charming.”

“Oh! my lord!”

“Farewell, till our next meeting, M. Bonancieux—till our next meeting.”

Bonancieux, at a sign from the cardinal’s hand, bowed to the very ground, and then backed himself out of the room. When he was in the anteroom, the cardinal heard him, in his enthusiasm, crying out, at the top of his voice:

“Long live his eminence! long live the great cardinal!”

Richelieu listened with a smile to this noisy manifestation of the enthusiastic feelings of Master Bonancieux: and, when his shouts were lost in the distance: “There,” he said, “is a man who would henceforth die for me!”

The cardinal then set himself to examine with great attention the map of La Rochelle, which was spread out upon the table, and to mark with a pencil the position of the famous breakwater which, eighteen months afterwards, closed the port of the besieged city.

Whilst he was most deeply occupied with these strategic meditations, the door opened, and Rochefort reappeared.

“Well!” said the cardinal, with vivacity, which proved what consequence he attached to the intelligence that he expected from the count.

“Well!” said the latter, “a young woman, between twenty-six and twenty-eight years old, and a man of about thirty-five or forty years of age, have really lodged in the houses indicated by your eminence; but the woman left last night, and the man this morning.”

“It was they!” exclaimed the duke, whose eyes were fixed upon the clock: “but now,” he continued, “it is too late to follow them. The duchess is at Tours, and the duke at Boulogne. It is in London that they must be overtaken.”

“What are your eminence’s commands?”

“Let not one word be said of what has passed. Let the queen remain in perfect peace of mind; let her be ignorant that we know her secret; let her believe that we are hunting after some conspiracy. Send me Seguier, the keeper of the seals.”

“And this man? What has your eminence done with him?”

“What man?” demanded the cardinal.

“This Bonancieux.”

“I have done all that could be done with him. I have set him to spy upon his wife.”

The Count de Rochefort bowed low, like a man who felt the great superiority of his master, and withdrew.

As soon as the cardinal was again alone, he seated himself once more, and wrote a letter, which he sealed with his private signet, and then rang his bell. The officer entered for the fourth time.

“Tell Vitry to come here,” said the cardinal, “and order him to be ready for a journey.”

In another moment the man he had sent for was standing before him, booted and spurred.

“Vitry,” said he, “you must go off at once, without an instant’s delay, to London. You must not stop one moment on the road, and you will give this letter to my lady. There is a cheque for two hundred pistoles; go to my treasurer, and get the money. You shall have the same sum if you return in six days, having performed my commission with success!”

The messenger, without answering one word, bowed; took the letter, and the order for two hundred pistoles, and left the room.

These were the contents of the letter—

“MY LADY,

“Be present at the first ball where you can meet the Duke of Buckingham. He will have on his doublet twelve diamond studs; get close to him, and cut off two.

“As soon as these studs are in your possession, let me know it.”