Supper was eaten in silence, but not in sadness; for fromtime to time one of those sweet smiles which were habitualto him in moments of good-humor illumined the face ofD'Artagnan. Not a scintilla of these was lost on Porthos;and at every one he uttered an exclamation which betrayed tohis friend that he had not lost sight of the idea whichpossessed his brain.

At dessert D'Artagnan reposed in his chair, crossed one legover the other and lounged about like a man perfectly at hisease.

Porthos rested his chin on his hands, placed his elbows onthe table and looked at D'Artagnan with an expression ofconfidence which imparted to that colossus an admirableappearance of good-fellowship.

"Well?" said D'Artagnan, at last.

"Well!" repeated Porthos.

"You were saying, my dear friend - - "

"No; I said nothing."

"Yes; you were saying you wished to leave this place."

"Ah, indeed! the will was never wanting."

"To get away you would not mind, you added, knocking down adoor or a wall."

"'Tis true - I said so, and I say it again."

"And I answered you, Porthos, that it was not a good plan;that we couldn't go a hundred steps without beingrecaptured, because we were without clothes to disguiseourselves and arms to defend ourselves."

"That is true; we should need clothes and arms."

"Well," said D'Artagnan, rising, "we have them, friendPorthos, and even something better."

"Bah!" said Porthos, looking around.

"Useless to look; everything will come to us when wanted. Atabout what time did we see the two Swiss guards walkingyesterday?"

"An hour after sunset."

"If they go out to-day as they did yesterday we shall havethe honor, then, of seeing them in half an hour?"

"In a quarter of an hour at most."

"Your arm is still strong enough, is it not, Porthos?"

Porthos unbuttoned his sleeve, raised his shirt and lookedcomplacently on his strong arm, as large as the leg of anyordinary man.

"Yes, indeed," said he, "I believe so."

"So that you could without trouble convert these tongs intoa hoop and yonder shovel into a corkscrew?"

"Certainly." And the giant took up these two articles, andwithout any apparent effort produced in them themetamorphoses suggested by his companion.

"There!" he cried.

"Capital!" exclaimed the Gascon. "Really, Porthos, you are agifted individual!"

"I have heard speak," said Porthos, "of a certain Milo ofCrotona, who performed wonderful feats, such as binding hisforehead with a cord and bursting it - of killing an oxwith a blow of his fist and carrying it home on hisshoulders, et cetera. I used to learn all these feat byheart yonder, down at Pierrefonds, and I have done all thathe did except breaking a cord by the corrugation of mytemples."

"Because your strength is not in your head, Porthos," saidhis friend.

"No; it is in my arms and shoulders," answered Porthos withgratified naivete.

"Well, my dear friend, let us approach the window and thereyou can match your strength against that of an iron bar."

Porthos went to the window, took a bar in his hands, clungto it and bent it like a bow; so that the two ends came outof the sockets of stone in which for thirty years they hadbeen fixed.

"Well! friend, the cardinal, although such a genius, couldnever have done that."

"Shall I take out any more of them?" asked Porthos.

"No; that is sufficient; a man can pass through that."

Porthos tried, and passed the upper portion of his bodythrough.

"Yes," he said.

"Now pass your arm through this opening."

"Why?"

"You will know presently - pass it."

Porthos obeyed with military promptness and passed his armthrough the opening.

"Admirable!" said D'Artagnan.

"The scheme goes forward, it seems."

"On wheels, dear friend."

"Good! What shall I do now?"

"Nothing."

"It is finished, then?"

"No, not yet."

"I should like to understand," said Porthos.

"Listen, my dear friend; in two words you will know all. Thedoor of the guardhouse opens, as you see."

"Yes, I see."

"They are about to send into our court, which Monsieur deMazarin crosses on his way to the orangery, the two guardswho attend him."

"There they are, coming out."

"If only they close the guardhouse door! Good! They closeit."

"What, then?"

"Silence! They may hear us."

"I don't understand it at all."

"As you execute you will understand."

"And yet I should have preferred - - "

"You will have the pleasure of the surprise."

"Ah, that is true."

"Hush!"

Porthos remained silent and motionless.

In fact, the two soldiers advanced on the side where thewindow was, rubbing their hands, for it was cold, it beingthe month of February.

At this moment the door of the guardhouse was opened and oneof the soldiers was summoned away.

"Now," said D'Artagnan, "I am going to call this soldier andtalk to him. Don't lose a word of what I'm going to say toyou, Porthos. Everything lies in the execution."

"Good, the execution of plots is my forte."

"I know it well. I depend on you. Look, I shall turn to theleft, so that the soldier will be at your right, as soon ashe mounts on the bench to talk to us."

"But supposing he doesn't mount?"

"He will; rely upon it. As soon as you see him get up,stretch out your arm and seize him by the neck. Then,raising him up as Tobit raised the fish by the gills, youmust pull him into the room, taking care to squeeze him sotight that he can't cry out."

"Oh!" said Porthos. "Suppose I happen to strangle him?"

"To be sure there would only be a Swiss the less in theworld; but you will not do so, I hope. Lay him down here;we'll gag him and tie him - no matter where - somewhere.So we shall get from him one uniform and a sword."

"Marvelous!" exclaimed Porthos, looking at the Gascon withthe most profound admiration.

"Pooh!" replied D'Artagnan.

"Yes," said Porthos, recollecting himself, "but one uniformand one sword will not suffice for two."

"Well; but there's his comrade."

"True," said Porthos.

"Therefore, when I cough, stretch out your arm."

"Good!"

The two friends then placed themselves as they had agreed,Porthos being completely hidden in an angle of the window.

"Good-evening, comrade," said D'Artagnan in his mostfascinating voice and manner.

"Good-evening, sir," answered the soldier, in a strongprovincial accent.

"'Tis not too warm to walk," resumed D'Artagnan.

"No, sir."

"And I think a glass of wine will not be disagreeable toyou?"

"A glass of wine will be extremely welcome."

"The fish bites - the fish bites!" whispered the Gascon toPorthos.

"I understand," said Porthos.

"A bottle, perhaps?"

"A whole bottle? Yes, sir."

"A whole bottle, if you will drink my health."

"Willingly," answered the soldier.

"Come, then, and take it, friend," said the Gascon.

"With all my heart. How convenient that there's a benchhere. Egad! one would think it had been placed here onpurpose."

"Get on it; that's it, friend."

And D'Artagnan coughed.

That instant the arm of Porthos fell. His hand of irongrasped, quick as lightning, firm as a pair of blacksmith'spincers, the soldier's throat. He raised him, almoststifling him as he drew him through the aperture, at therisk of flaying him in the passage. He then laid him down onthe floor, where D'Artagnan, after giving him just timeenough to draw his breath, gagged him with his long scarf;and the moment he had done so began to undress him with thepromptitude and dexterity of a man who had learned hisbusiness on the field of battle. Then the soldier, gaggedand bound, was placed upon the hearth, the fire of which hadbeen previously extinguished by the two friends.

"Here's a sword and a dress," said Porthos.

"I take them," said D'Artagnan, "for myself. If you wantanother uniform and sword you must play the same trick overagain. Stop! I see the other soldier issue from theguardroom and come toward us."

"I think," replied Porthos, "it would be imprudent toattempt the same manoeuvre again; it is said that no man cansucceed twice in the same way, and a failure would beruinous. No; I will go down, seize the man unawares andbring him to you ready gagged."

"That is better," said the Gascon.

"Be ready," said Porthos, as he slipped through the opening.

He did as he said. Porthos seized his opportunity, caughtthe next soldier by his neck, gagged him and pushed him likea mummy through the bars into the room, and entered afterhim. Then they undressed him as they had done the first,laid him on their bed and bound him with the straps whichcomposed the bed - the bedstead being of oak. Thisoperation proved as great a success as the first.

"There," said D'Artagnan, "this is capital! Now let me tryon the dress of yonder chap. Porthos, I doubt if you canwear it; but should it be too tight, never mind, you canwear the breastplate and the hat with the red feathers."

It happened, however, that the second soldier was a Swiss ofgigantic proportions, so, save that some few of the seamssplit, his uniform fitted Porthos perfectly.

They then dressed themselves.

"'Tis done!" they both exclaimed at once. "As to you,comrades," they said to the men, "nothing will happen to youif you are discreet; but if you stir you are dead men."

The soldiers were complaisant; they had found the grasp ofPorthos pretty powerful and that it was no joke to fightagainst it.

"Now," said D'Artagnan, "you wouldn't be sorry to understandthe plot, would you, Porthos?"

"Well, no, not very."

"Well, then, we shall go down into the court."

"Yes."

"We shall take the place of those two fellows."

"Well?"

"We will walk back and forth."

"That's a good idea, for it isn't warm."

"In a moment the valet-de-chambre will call the guard, as hedid yesterday and the day before."

"And we shall answer?"

"No, on the contrary, we shall not answer."

"As you please; I don't insist on answering."

"We will not answer, then; we will simply settle our hats onour heads and we will escort his eminence."

"Where shall we escort him?"

"Where he is going - to visit Athos. Do you think Athoswill be sorry to see us?"

"Oh!" cried Porthos, "oh! I understand."

"Wait a little, Porthos, before crying out; for, on my word,you haven't reached the end," said the Gascon, in a jestingtone.

"What is to happen?" said Porthos.

"Follow me," replied D'Artagnan. "The man who lives to seeshall see."

And slipping through the aperture, he alighted in the court.Porthos followed him by the same road, but with moredifficulty and less diligence. They could hear the twosoldiers shivering with fear, as they lay bound in thechamber.

Scarcely had the two Frenchmen touched the ground when adoor opened and the voice of the valet-de-chambre calledout:

"Make ready!"

At the same moment the guardhouse was opened and a voicecalled out:

"La Bruyere and Du Barthois! March!"

It seems that I am named La Bruyere," remarked D'Artagnan.

"And I, Du Barthois," added Porthos.

"Where are you?" asked the valet-de-chambre, whose eyes,dazzled by the light, could not clearly distinguish ourheroes in the gloom.

"Here we are," said the Gascon.

"What say you to that, Monsieur du Vallon?" he added in alow tone to Porthos.

"If it but lasts, most capital," responded Porthos.

These two newly enlisted soldiers marched gravely after thevalet-de-chambre, who opened the door of the vestibule, thenanother which seemed to be that of a waiting-room, andshowing them two stools:

"Your orders are very simple," he said; "don't allowanybody, except one person, to enter here. Do you hear - not a single creature! Obey that person implicitly. On yourreturn you cannot make a mistake. You have only to wait heretill I release you."

D'Artagnan was known to this valet-de-chambre, who was noother than Bernouin, and he had during the last six or eightmonths introduced the Gascon a dozen times to the cardinal.The Gascon, therefore, instead of answering, growled out"Ja! Ja!" in the most German and the least Gascon accentpossible.

As for Porthos, on whom D'Artagnan had impressed thenecessity of absolute silence and who did not even now beginto comprehend the scheme of his friend, which was to followMazarin in his visit to Athos, he was simply mute. All thathe was allowed to say, in case of emergencies, was theproverbial Der Teufel!

Bernouin shut the door and went away. When Porthos heard thekey turn in the lock he began to be alarmed, lest theyshould only have exchanged one prison for another.

"Porthos, my friend," said D'Artagnan, "don't distrustProvidence! Let me meditate and consider."

"Meditate and consider as much as you like," repliedPorthos, who was now quite out of humor at seeing thingstake this turn.

"We have walked eight paces," whispered D'Artagnan, "andgone up six steps, so hereabouts is the pavilion called thepavilion of the orangery. The Comte de la Fere cannot be faroff, only the doors are locked."

"That is a slight difficulty," said Porthos, "and a goodpush with the shoulders - - "

"For God's sake, Porthos my friend, reserve your feats ofstrength, or they will not have, when needed the honor theydeserve. Have you not heard that some one is coming here?"

"Yes."

"Well, that some one will open the doors."

"But, my dear fellow, if that some one recognizes us, ifthat some one cries out, we are lost; for you don't propose,I imagine, that I shall kill that man of the church. Thatmight do if we were dealing with Englishmen or Germans."

"Oh, may God keep me from it, and you, too!" saidD'Artagnan. "The young king would, perhaps, show us somegratitude; but the queen would never forgive us, and it isshe whom we have to consider. And then, besides, the uselessblood! never! no, never! I have my plan; let me carry it outand we shall laugh."

"So much the better," said Porthos; "I feel some need ofit."

"Hush!" said D'Artagnan; "the some one is coming."

The sound of a light step was heard in the vestibule. Thehinges of the door creaked and a man appeared in the dressof a cavalier, wrapped in a brown cloak, with a lantern inone hand and a large beaver hat pulled down over his eyes.

Porthos effaced himself against the wall, but he could notrender himself invisible; and the man in the cloak said tohim, giving him his lantern:

"Light the lamp which hangs from the ceiling."

Then addressing D'Artagnan:

"You know the watchword?" he said.

"Ja!" replied the Gascon, determined to confine himself tothis specimen of the German tongue.

"Tedesco!" answered the cavalier; "va bene."

And advancing toward the door opposite to that by which hecame in, he opened it and disappeared behind it, shutting itas he went.

"Now," asked Porthos, "what are we to do?"

"Now we shall make use of your shoulder, friend Porthos, ifthis door proves to be locked. Everything in its propertime, and all comes right to those who know how to waitpatiently. But first barricade the first door well; then wewill follow yonder cavalier."

The two friends set to work and crowded the space before thedoor with all the furniture in the room, as not only to makethe passage impassable, but so to block the door that by nomeans could it open inward.

"There!" said D'Artagnan, "we can't be overtaken. Come!forward!"