41 THE SEIGE OF LA ROCHELLE
The Siege of La Rochelle was one of the great political events of thereign of Louis XIII, and one of the great military enterprises of thecardinal. It is, then, interesting and even necessary that we should saya few words about it, particularly as many details of this siege areconnected in too important a manner with the story we have undertaken torelate to allow us to pass it over in silence.
The political plans of the cardinal when he undertook this siege wereextensive. Let us unfold them first, and then pass on to the privateplans which perhaps had not less influence upon his Eminence than theothers.
Of the important cities given up by Henry IV to the Huguenots as placesof safety, there only remained La Rochelle. It became necessary,therefore, to destroy this last bulwark of Calvinism--a dangerous leavenwith which the ferments of civil revolt and foreign war were constantlymingling.
Spaniards, Englishmen, and Italian malcontents, adventurers of allnations, and soldiers of fortune of every sect, flocked at the firstsummons under the standard of the Protestants, and organized themselveslike a vast association, whose branches diverged freely over all partsof Europe.
La Rochelle, which had derived a new importance from the ruin of theother Calvinist cities, was, then, the focus of dissensions andambition. Moreover, its port was the last in the kingdom of France opento the English, and by closing it against England, our eternal enemy,the cardinal completed the work of Joan of Arc and the Duc de Guise.
Thus Bassompierre, who was at once Protestant and Catholic--Protestantby conviction and Catholic as commander of the order of the Holy Ghost;Bassompierre, who was a German by birth and a Frenchman at heart--inshort, Bassompierre, who had a distinguished command at the siege of LaRochelle, said, in charging at the head of several other Protestantnobles like himself, "You will see, gentlemen, that we shall be foolsenough to take La Rochelle."
And Bassompierre was right. The cannonade of the Isle of Re presaged tohim the dragonnades of the Cevennes; the taking of La Rochelle was thepreface to the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
We have hinted that by the side of these views of the leveling andsimplifying minister, which belong to history, the chronicler is forcedto recognize the lesser motives of the amorous man and jealous rival.
Richelieu, as everyone knows, had loved the queen. Was this love asimple political affair, or was it naturally one of those profoundpassions which Anne of Austria inspired in those who approached her?That we are not able to say; but at all events, we have seen, by theanterior developments of this story, that Buckingham had the advantageover him, and in two or three circumstances, particularly that of thediamond studs, had, thanks to the devotedness of the three Musketeersand the courage and conduct of d'Artagnan, cruelly mystified him.
It was, then, Richelieu's object, not only to get rid of an enemy ofFrance, but to avenge himself on a rival; but this vengeance must begrand and striking and worthy in every way of a man who held in hishand, as his weapon for combat, the forces of a kingdom.
Richelieu knew that in combating England he combated Buckingham; that intriumphing over England he triumphed over Buckingham--in short, that inhumiliating England in the eyes of Europe he humiliated Buckingham inthe eyes of the queen.
On his side Buckingham, in pretending to maintain the honor of England,was moved by interests exactly like those of the cardinal. Buckinghamalso was pursuing a private vengeance. Buckingham could not under anypretense be admitted into France as an ambassador; he wished to enter itas a conqueror.
It resulted from this that the real stake in this game, which two mostpowerful kingdoms played for the good pleasure of two amorous men, wassimply a kind look from Anne of Austria.
The first advantage had been gained by Buckingham. Arriving unexpectedlyin sight of the Isle of Re with ninety vessels and nearly twentythousand men, he had surprised the Comte de Toiras, who commanded forthe king in the Isle, and he had, after a bloody conflict, effected hislanding.
Allow us to observe in passing that in this fight perished the Baron deChantal; that the Baron de Chantal left a little orphan girl eighteenmonths old, and that this little girl was afterward Mme. de Sevigne.
The Comte de Toiras retired into the citadel St. Martin with hisgarrison, and threw a hundred men into a little fort called the fort ofLa Pree.
This event had hastened the resolutions of the cardinal; and till theking and he could take the command of the siege of La Rochelle, whichwas determined, he had sent Monsieur to direct the first operations, andhad ordered all the troops he could dispose of to march toward thetheater of war. It was of this detachment, sent as a vanguard, that ourfriend d'Artagnan formed a part.
The king, as we have said, was to follow as soon as his Bed of Justicehad been held; but on rising from his Bed of Justice on thetwenty-eighth of June, he felt himself attacked by fever. He was,notwithstanding, anxious to set out; but his illness becoming moreserious, he was forced to stop at Villeroy.
Now, whenever the king halted, the Musketeers halted. It followed thatd'Artagnan, who was as yet purely and simply in the Guards, foundhimself, for the time at least, separated from his good friends--Athos,Porthos, and Aramis. This separation, which was no more than anunpleasant circumstance, would have certainly become a cause of seriousuneasiness if he had been able to guess by what unknown dangers he wassurrounded.
He, however, arrived without accident in the camp established before LaRochelle, on the tenth of the month of September of the year 1627.
Everything was in the same state. The Duke of Buckingham and hisEnglish, masters of the Isle of Re, continued to besiege, but withoutsuccess, the citadel St. Martin and the fort of La Pree; and hostilitieswith La Rochelle had commenced, two or three days before, about a fortwhich the Duc d'Angouleme had caused to be constructed near the city.
The Guards, under the command of M. Dessessart, took up their quartersat the Minimes; but, as we know, d'Artagnan, possessed with ambition toenter the Musketeers, had formed but few friendships among his comrades,and he felt himself isolated and given up to his own reflections.
His reflections were not very cheerful. From the time of his arrival inParis, he had been mixed up with public affairs; but his own privateaffairs had made no great progress, either in love or fortune. As tolove, the only woman he could have loved was Mme. Bonacieux; and Mme.Bonacieux had disappeared, without his being able to discover what hadbecome of her. As to fortune, he had made--he, humble as he was--anenemy of the cardinal; that is to say, of a man before whom trembled thegreatest men of the kingdom, beginning with the king.
That man had the power to crush him, and yet he had not done so. For amind so perspicuous as that of d'Artagnan, this indulgence was a lightby which he caught a glimpse of a better future.
Then he had made himself another enemy, less to be feared, he thought;but nevertheless, he instinctively felt, not to be despised. This enemywas Milady.
In exchange for all this, he had acquired the protection and good willof the queen; but the favor of the queen was at the present time anadditional cause of persecution, and her protection, as it was known,protected badly--as witness Chalais and Mme. Bonacieux.
What he had clearly gained in all this was the diamond, worth five orsix thousand livres, which he wore on his finger; and even thisdiamond--supposing that d'Artagnan, in his projects of ambition, wishedto keep it, to make it someday a pledge for the gratitude of thequeen--had not in the meanwhile, since he could not part with it, morevalue than the gravel he trod under his feet.
We say the gravel he trod under his feet, for d'Artagnan made thesereflections while walking solitarily along a pretty little road whichled from the camp to the village of Angoutin. Now, these reflections hadled him further than he intended, and the day was beginning to declinewhen, by the last ray of the setting sun, he thought he saw the barrelof a musket glitter from behind a hedge.
D'Artagnan had a quick eye and a prompt understanding. He comprehendedthat the musket had not com
e there of itself, and that he who bore ithad not concealed himself behind a hedge with any friendly intentions.He determined, therefore, to direct his course as clear from it as hecould when, on the opposite side of the road, from behind a rock, heperceived the extremity of another musket.
This was evidently an ambuscade.
The young man cast a glance at the first musket and saw, with a certaindegree of inquietude, that it was leveled in his direction; but as soonas he perceived that the orifice of the barrel was motionless, he threwhimself upon the ground. At the same instant the gun was fired, and heheard the whistling of a ball pass over his head.
No time was to be lost. D'Artagnan sprang up with a bound, and at thesame instant the ball from the other musket tore up the gravel on thevery spot on the road where he had thrown himself with his face to theground.
D'Artagnan was not one of those foolhardy men who seek a ridiculousdeath in order that it may be said of them that they did not retreat asingle step. Besides, courage was out of the question here; d'Artagnanhad fallen into an ambush.
"If there is a third shot," said he to himself, "I am a lost man."
He immediately, therefore, took to his heels and ran toward the camp,with the swiftness of the young men of his country, so renowned fortheir agility; but whatever might be his speed, the first who fired,having had time to reload, fired a second shot, and this time so wellaimed that it struck his hat, and carried it ten paces from him.
As he, however, had no other hat, he picked up this as he ran, andarrived at his quarters very pale and quite out of breath. He sat downwithout saying a word to anybody, and began to reflect.
This event might have three causes:
The first and the most natural was that it might be an ambuscade of theRochellais, who might not be sorry to kill one of his Majesty's Guards,because it would be an enemy the less, and this enemy might have awell-furnished purse in his pocket.
D'Artagnan took his hat, examined the hole made by the ball, and shookhis head. The ball was not a musket ball--it was an arquebus ball. Theaccuracy of the aim had first given him the idea that a special weaponhad been employed. This could not, then, be a military ambuscade, as theball was not of the regular caliber.
This might be a kind remembrance of Monsieur the Cardinal. It may beobserved that at the very moment when, thanks to the ray of the sun, heperceived the gun barrel, he was thinking with astonishment on theforbearance of his Eminence with respect to him.
But d'Artagnan again shook his head. For people toward whom he had butto put forth his hand, his Eminence had rarely recourse to such means.
It might be a vengeance of Milady; that was most probable.
He tried in vain to remember the faces or dress of the assassins; he hadescaped so rapidly that he had not had leisure to notice anything.
"Ah, my poor friends!" murmured d'Artagnan; "where are you? And that youshould fail me!"
D'Artagnan passed a very bad night. Three or four times he started up,imagining that a man was approaching his bed for the purpose of stabbinghim. Nevertheless, day dawned without darkness having brought anyaccident.
But d'Artagnan well suspected that that which was deferred was notrelinquished.
D'Artagnan remained all day in his quarters, assigning as a reason tohimself that the weather was bad.
At nine o'clock the next morning, the drums beat to arms. The Ducd'Orleans visited the posts. The guards were under arms, and d'Artagnantook his place in the midst of his comrades.
Monsieur passed along the front of the line; then all the superiorofficers approached him to pay their compliments, M. Dessessart, captainof the Guards, as well as the others.
At the expiration of a minute or two, it appeared to d'Artagnan that M.Dessessart made him a sign to approach. He waited for a fresh gesture onthe part of his superior, for fear he might be mistaken; but thisgesture being repeated, he left the ranks, and advanced to receiveorders.
"Monsieur is about to ask for some men of good will for a dangerousmission, but one which will do honor to those who shall accomplish it;and I made you a sign in order that you might hold yourself inreadiness."
"Thanks, my captain!" replied d'Artagnan, who wished for nothing betterthan an opportunity to distinguish himself under the eye of thelieutenant general.
In fact the Rochellais had made a sortie during the night, and hadretaken a bastion of which the royal army had gained possession two daysbefore. The matter was to ascertain, by reconnoitering, how the enemyguarded this bastion.
At the end of a few minutes Monsieur raised his voice, and said, "I wantfor this mission three or four volunteers, led by a man who can bedepended upon."
"As to the man to be depended upon, I have him under my hand, monsieur,"said M. Dessessart, pointing to d'Artagnan; "and as to the four or fivevolunteers, Monsieur has but to make his intentions known, and the menwill not be wanting."
"Four men of good will who will risk being killed with me!" saidd'Artagnan, raising his sword.
Two of his comrades of the Guards immediately sprang forward, and twoother soldiers having joined them, the number was deemed sufficient.D'Artagnan declined all others, being unwilling to take the first chancefrom those who had the priority.
It was not known whether, after the taking of the bastion, theRochellais had evacuated it or left a garrison in it; the object thenwas to examine the place near enough to verify the reports.
D'Artagnan set out with his four companions, and followed the trench;the two Guards marched abreast with him, and the two soldiers followedbehind.
They arrived thus, screened by the lining of the trench, till they camewithin a hundred paces of the bastion. There, on turning round,d'Artagnan perceived that the two soldiers had disappeared.
He thought that, beginning to be afraid, they had stayed behind, and hecontinued to advance.
At the turning of the counterscarp they found themselves within aboutsixty paces of the bastion. They saw no one, and the bastion seemedabandoned.
The three composing our forlorn hope were deliberating whether theyshould proceed any further, when all at once a circle of smoke envelopedthe giant of stone, and a dozen balls came whistling around d'Artagnanand his companions.
They knew all they wished to know; the bastion was guarded. A longerstay in this dangerous spot would have been useless imprudence.D'Artagnan and his two companions turned their backs, and commenced aretreat which resembled a flight.
On arriving at the angle of the trench which was to serve them as arampart, one of the Guardsmen fell. A ball had passed through hisbreast. The other, who was safe and sound, continued his way toward thecamp.
D'Artagnan was not willing to abandon his companion thus, and stooped toraise him and assist him in regaining the lines; but at this moment twoshots were fired. One ball struck the head of the already-wounded guard,and the other flattened itself against a rock, after having passedwithin two inches of d'Artagnan.
The young man turned quickly round, for this attack could not have comefrom the bastion, which was hidden by the angle of the trench. The ideaof the two soldiers who had abandoned him occurred to his mind, and withthem he remembered the assassins of two evenings before. He resolvedthis time to know with whom he had to deal, and fell upon the body ofhis comrade as if he were dead.
He quickly saw two heads appear above an abandoned work within thirtypaces of him; they were the heads of the two soldiers. D'Artagnan hadnot been deceived; these two men had only followed for the purpose ofassassinating him, hoping that the young man's death would be placed tothe account of the enemy.
As he might be only wounded and might denounce their crime, they came upto him with the purpose of making sure. Fortunately, deceived byd'Artagnan's trick, they neglected to reload their guns.
When they were within ten paces of him, d'Artagnan, who in falling hadtaken care not to let go his sword, sprang up close to them.
The assassins comprehended that if they fled toward the camp withouthaving killed their
man, they should be accused by him; therefore theirfirst idea was to join the enemy. One of them took his gun by thebarrel, and used it as he would a club. He aimed a terrible blow atd'Artagnan, who avoided it by springing to one side; but by thismovement he left a passage free to the bandit, who darted off toward thebastion. As the Rochellais who guarded the bastion were ignorant of theintentions of the man they saw coming toward them, they fired upon him,and he fell, struck by a ball which broke his shoulder.
Meantime d'Artagnan had thrown himself upon the other soldier, attackinghim with his sword. The conflict was not long; the wretch had nothing todefend himself with but his discharged arquebus. The sword of theGuardsman slipped along the barrel of the now-useless weapon, and passedthrough the thigh of the assassin, who fell.
D'Artagnan immediately placed the point of his sword at his throat.
"Oh, do not kill me!" cried the bandit. "Pardon, pardon, my officer, andI will tell you all."
"Is your secret of enough importance to me to spare your life for it?"asked the young man, withholding his arm.
"Yes; if you think existence worth anything to a man of twenty, as youare, and who may hope for everything, being handsome and brave, as youare."
"Wretch," cried d'Artagnan, "speak quickly! Who employed you toassassinate me?"
"A woman whom I don't know, but who is called Milady."
"But if you don't know this woman, how do you know her name?"
"My comrade knows her, and called her so. It was with him she agreed,and not with me; he even has in his pocket a letter from that person,who attaches great importance to you, as I have heard him say."
"But how did you become concerned in this villainous affair?"
"He proposed to me to undertake it with him, and I agreed."
"And how much did she give you for this fine enterprise?"
"A hundred louis."
"Well, come!" said the young man, laughing, "she thinks I am worthsomething. A hundred louis? Well, that was a temptation for two wretcheslike you. I understand why you accepted it, and I grant you my pardon;but upon one condition."
"What is that?" said the soldier, uneasy at perceiving that all was notover.
"That you will go and fetch me the letter your comrade has in hispocket."
"But," cried the bandit, "that is only another way of killing me. Howcan I go and fetch that letter under the fire of the bastion?"
"You must nevertheless make up your mind to go and get it, or I swearyou shall die by my hand."
"Pardon, monsieur; pity! In the name of that young lady you love, andwhom you perhaps believe dead but who is not!" cried the bandit,throwing himself upon his knees and leaning upon his hand--for he beganto lose his strength with his blood.
"And how do you know there is a young woman whom I love, and that Ibelieved that woman dead?" asked d'Artagnan.
"By that letter which my comrade has in his pocket."
"You see, then," said d'Artagnan, "that I must have that letter. So nomore delay, no more hesitation; or else whatever may be my repugnance tosoiling my sword a second time with the blood of a wretch like you, Iswear by my faith as an honest man--" and at these words d'Artagnan madeso fierce a gesture that the wounded man sprang up.
"Stop, stop!" cried he, regaining strength by force of terror. "I willgo--I will go!"
D'Artagnan took the soldier's arquebus, made him go on before him, andurged him toward his companion by pricking him behind with his sword.
It was a frightful thing to see this wretch, leaving a long track ofblood on the ground he passed over, pale with approaching death, tryingto drag himself along without being seen to the body of his accomplice,which lay twenty paces from him.
Terror was so strongly painted on his face, covered with a cold sweat,that d'Artagnan took pity on him, and casting upon him a look ofcontempt, "Stop," said he, "I will show you the difference between a manof courage and such a coward as you. Stay where you are; I will gomyself."
And with a light step, an eye on the watch, observing the movements ofthe enemy and taking advantage of the accidents of the ground,d'Artagnan succeeded in reaching the second soldier.
There were two means of gaining his object--to search him on the spot,or to carry him away, making a buckler of his body, and search him inthe trench.
D'Artagnan preferred the second means, and lifted the assassin onto hisshoulders at the moment the enemy fired.
A slight shock, the dull noise of three balls which penetrated theflesh, a last cry, a convulsion of agony, proved to d'Artagnan that thewould-be assassin had saved his life.
D'Artagnan regained the trench, and threw the corpse beside the woundedman, who was as pale as death.
Then he began to search. A leather pocketbook, a purse, in which wasevidently a part of the sum which the bandit had received, with a dicebox and dice, completed the possessions of the dead man.
He left the box and dice where they fell, threw the purse to the woundedman, and eagerly opened the pocketbook.
Among some unimportant papers he found the following letter, that whichhe had sought at the risk of his life:
"Since you have lost sight of that woman and she is now in safety in theconvent, which you should never have allowed her to reach, try, atleast, not to miss the man. If you do, you know that my hand stretchesfar, and that you shall pay very dearly for the hundred louis you havefrom me."
No signature. Nevertheless it was plain the letter came from Milady. Heconsequently kept it as a piece of evidence, and being in safety behindthe angle of the trench, he began to interrogate the wounded man. Heconfessed that he had undertaken with his comrade--the same who waskilled--to carry off a young woman who was to leave Paris by theBarriere de La Villette; but having stopped to drink at a cabaret, theyhad missed the carriage by ten minutes.
"But what were you to do with that woman?" asked d'Artagnan, withanguish.
"We were to have conveyed her to a hotel in the Place Royale," said thewounded man.
"Yes, yes!" murmured d'Artagnan; "that's the place--Milady's ownresidence!"
Then the young man tremblingly comprehended what a terrible thirst forvengeance urged this woman on to destroy him, as well as all who lovedhim, and how well she must be acquainted with the affairs of the court,since she had discovered all. There could be no doubt she owed thisinformation to the cardinal.
But amid all this he perceived, with a feeling of real joy, that thequeen must have discovered the prison in which poor Mme. Bonacieux wasexplaining her devotion, and that she had freed her from that prison;and the letter he had received from the young woman, and her passagealong the road of Chaillot like an apparition, were now explained.
Then also, as Athos had predicted, it became possible to find Mme.Bonacieux, and a convent was not impregnable.
This idea completely restored clemency to his heart. He turned towardthe wounded man, who had watched with intense anxiety all the variousexpressions of his countenance, and holding out his arm to him, said,"Come, I will not abandon you thus. Lean upon me, and let us return tothe camp."
"Yes," said the man, who could scarcely believe in such magnanimity,"but is it not to have me hanged?"
"You have my word," said he; "for the second time I give you your life."
The wounded man sank upon his knees, to again kiss the feet of hispreserver; but d'Artagnan, who had no longer a motive for staying sonear the enemy, abridged the testimonials of his gratitude.
The Guardsman who had returned at the first discharge announced thedeath of his four companions. They were therefore much astonished anddelighted in the regiment when they saw the young man come back safe andsound.
D'Artagnan explained the sword wound of his companion by a sortie whichhe improvised. He described the death of the other soldier, and theperils they had encountered. This recital was for him the occasion ofveritable triumph. The whole army talked of this expedition for a day,and Monsieur paid him his compliments upon it. Besides this, as everygreat action bears its recom
pense with it, the brave exploit ofd'Artagnan resulted in the restoration of the tranquility he had lost.In fact, d'Artagnan believed that he might be tranquil, as one of histwo enemies was killed and the other devoted to his interests.
This tranquillity proved one thing--that d'Artagnan did not yet knowMilady.