Chapter 26 Chapter 24 Small Building

At nine o'clock, D'Artagnan arrived at the headquarters of the Guards, and found Planchet fully armed, and the fourth horse had returned. Planchet's weapons were a musket and a pistol. D'Artagnan put on his sword, and fastened the two pistols in his girdle, and the master and servant each mounted a horse, and quietly left the headquarters.The night was so dark that you couldn't see your fingers, and no one saw them come out.Planchet rode behind his master at a distance of ten paces. D'Artagnan crossed the embankment, left the city through the gate of the meeting, and rode away along the road leading to the town of Saint-Cloud.

Before leaving the city, Planchet respectfully kept his own distance.However, as soon as the road began to be deserted and dark, he drew closer to his master; and when they entered the Bois de Blonnet, he walked side by side with him.Indeed, it cannot be denied that the trembling trees and the moonlight filtering through the dark foliage disturbed him greatly.D'Artagnan noticed this extraordinary change in the servant, and asked: Hello, Monsieur Planchet, what's the matter? Don't you think, sir, that this wood looks like a church? Why do you say that, Planchet? Because in the woods, as in church, I dare not speak loudly.

Why dare not speak aloud, Planchet?Is it because you are afraid? Yes, sir, fear of being heard. Fear of being heard!But our conversation was just, my dear Planchet, and there is nothing to blame. cough!gentlemen!Planchet brought up the thought that had always been in his mind, and Bonacieur always had a sinister look on his brows and an annoying movement of his lips. What the hell made you think of Bonasseur? Sir, man, you can always think what you can think, not what you want. Because you are a coward, Planchet. Don't confuse prudence with cowardice, sir, prudence is a virtue. So you are very virtuous, Planchet, are you not?

Is there, sir, the barrel of a musket flashing?How about we keep our heads down? Indeed, said d'Artagnan, thinking of M. de Treville's instructions, he said to himself, this fellow frightens me too. He spurred the horse to a gallop. Planchet galloped after his master, just like his master's shadow, and walked with his master again. Shall we run like this all night, sir? No, Planchet, you are here. What, sir, am I here? Me, I still have to go a few steps forward. Sir you leave me here alone? Are you frightened, Planchet? Not afraid, but I just want to remind you, sir, that it will be very cold at night, and cold is prone to rheumatism, and a rheumatic footman is a worthless servant, especially for a vigorous gentleman like you.

Well then, Planchet, if you feel cold, there are a few inns there, you can go to one of them and wait for me at the door at six o'clock tomorrow morning. Sir, I ate and drank all the crown you gave me this morning, at your command, so that if it gets cold later, I shall not find a penny in my pocket. This is half a pistol.See you tomorrow. D'Artagnan dismounted, threw the reins into Planchet's hands, wrapped his cloak tightly around him, and walked away quickly. God, it's so cold!This was how Planchet cried out as soon as the master disappeared.He was eager to keep warm, and when he saw a house in front of him that looked like an authentic suburban hotel, he hurried to knock on the door.

At this moment, D'Artagnan turned into a convenient path, continued to walk quickly, and soon reached the town of Saint-Cloud.However, instead of walking along the street, he went around to the back of the castle, entered a very remote alley, and arrived opposite the agreed small building in a short while.The place was deserted.The small building is located at the corner of a high wall; on one side of the high wall is a small alley, and on the other side is a fence surrounding a small garden to prevent pedestrians from entering.There is a simple hut in the garden. He arrived at the meeting place, but he didn't say in advance what code to use to inform the other party when he arrived, so he had to wait.

The place was as still and silent as if it were a hundred leagues from the capital.D'Artagnan glanced behind him and leaned against the fence.Beyond the hedge, the garden, and the cottage, lay the vast expanse of the country, covered in a dark night mist, where Paris slept, black, nothing to be seen but a few lights, like mournful stars in hell. flashing. However, in d'Artagnan's eyes, everything has a beautiful shape, every thought is accompanied by a smile, and even the deepest darkness is transparent.It's time for a date. Sure enough, after a while, the bell of the bell tower in Sainte-Croux was announced!when!when!Ten beats.

The sound of the bronze bell seems to be lamenting in the night, giving people a feeling of desolation. However, every chime of the timekeeping adds up to the appointment time, and it rings in the young man's heart, how sweet it sounds. He fixed his eyes on the small building at the corner of the street. All the windows had their shutters down and were tightly closed, except for one window on the second floor. A soft light from that window fell on two or three close-set lime trees outside the garden, and silvered the waving leaves.The pretty Madame Bonacieur must have been waiting for him at that softly lit window.

D'Artagnan waited patiently for half an hour, intoxicated by this sweet thought, keeping his eyes fixed on the beautiful light.Through the light, you can also see the golden relief on part of the ceiling in the room, which proves that the whole room is quite beautiful. The clock tower in Santa Cruz struck half-past ten. This time d'Artagnan could not help but tremble all over, and he himself was bewildered.Perhaps he too was beginning to feel cold, or perhaps he had mistook a purely physical sensation for a psychological one. Then it occurred to him that he had misread the letter, and that the appointment was at eleven o'clock.

He went to the window, stood in the light, took the letter out of his pocket, and read it again: The letter was not mistaken, and the appointment time was ten o'clock. He returned to where he had come from, and the feeling of loneliness and loneliness made him feel a little uneasy. Eleven o'clock struck. D'Artagnan was really beginning to worry that something had happened to Madame Bonacieur. He clapped his hands three times, which is the secret signal of ordinary lovers.But no one answered him, not even an echo. So, he couldn't help thinking a little angrily, maybe the young woman fell asleep while waiting for him.

He went to the base of the wall and tried to climb up to the top, but the wall had just been painted and there was nowhere to grab his fingers. Then he noticed the three lime trees, their leaves still silvery in the light.One of the branches stretched to the road, and he wanted to climb among those branches so that he could see the situation inside the small building. That tree is easy to climb.Besides, dArtagnan was not yet twenty years old, and he had not forgotten all the tree-climbing skills he had learned in elementary school.In the blink of an eye, he climbed among the branches and looked into the small building through the transparent glass window. strangeness!D'Artagnan shivered from the heels of his feet to the roots of his hair; the soft light, that silent lamp, illuminated a scene of terrible chaos.A window pane was shattered, the door was smashed and leaned on its hinges, a dining table that might have been set up for an exquisite supper was knocked over, and broken glass bottles and crushed fruit were strewn about.Everything indicated that a fierce and desperate struggle had taken place in this room.D'Artagnan even seemed to see, among the disorder, rags torn from dresses, and blood on tablecloths and curtains. He hurried down from the tree, heart beating wildly, to see if he could find any other signs that a rape had occurred. That little piece of soft light still flickered in the quiet night.It was only then that D'Artagnan realized that the ground was trampled in some places, and pitted in others, which were clearly the vague footprints of people and horseshoes.This was something he didn't notice at first.Besides, there was no reason to prompt him to observe carefully.In addition to these footprints, the wheels of a carriage made deep ruts on the soft soil. The carriage came from the direction of Paris and returned to Paris without passing the small building. D'Artagnan continued to observe, and found a torn woman's glove at the base of the wall.The glove, from the point where it didn't get muddy, was still new, the kind of perfumed glove that lovers like to take off their petite hands. The more d'Artagnan continued to observe, the colder his head was in a cold sweat, his heart was clenched by terrible worry, and his breathing became short of breath.However, he still gave himself reassurance, thinking that this small building might have nothing to do with Mrs. Bonasseur. The place where she asked to meet him was in front of the building, not in the building. , or because her husband was jealous, he couldn't get away and couldn't leave Paris. But these speculations are shattered, denied, and overthrown by a deep, painful feeling which, under certain circumstances, takes possession of our whole being and cries out to us from the bottom of our hearts: Great! Misfortune is imminent. Because of this, D'Artagnan almost lost his mind. He ran to the main road, followed the way he came to the ferry, and asked the boatman on the ferry about the situation. Nearly seven o'clock in the evening, the boatman ferried a woman over.The woman wore a black cloak, which was always on guard so that no one could recognize her.But because of her precautions, she attracted the attention of the boatman and found that she was a young and beautiful woman. Then, as now, there were many beautiful young women who came to Santa Cruz and didn't want to be seen.D'Artagnan, however, had no doubts that the woman whom the boatman had noticed was Madame Bonacieur. D'Artagnan went over to the lamp in the boat shed, read Madame Bonacieur's letter again, and made sure that he was not mistaken, that the place of the appointment was at Saint-Cruh and nowhere else, but at Ace. In front of Trey's house, not on another street. Everything proved to d'Artagnan that his premonition was correct, and a catastrophe was imminent. He turned back and ran towards the road of the old castle; he felt that during the time he had been away, something might have happened in the small building again, and there was something new waiting for him there. The alley was still deserted, and the window still shone with a quiet, soft light. D'Artagnan thought of the humble cottage in the garden, quiet and dark, but which might have seen what was going on and could give him some information. The garden gate was closed, and dArtagnan jumped in over the fence, and, despite the barking of the dog on the chain, went up to the cottage. He knocked on the door several times, but no one answered. The hut, like the small building, was shrouded in deathly silence.But he had nowhere else to go to inquire about the situation except this hut, so he insisted on knocking on the door. After knocking for a while, he seemed to hear a slight noise in the hut. The noise was trembling, as if he was afraid of being heard. D'Artagnan immediately ceased knocking, and began to entreat within with a voice full of uneasiness, sincerity, fear, and flattery; this voice alone was enough to reassure the most timid.At last an old moth-eaten shutter was opened, or rather cracked, but when a bean-like light in the corner reflected d'Artagnan's belt, sword-hilt, and pistol-hilt, the window opened. The board closed again immediately.Although the shutter was closed quickly, d'Artagnan caught a glimpse of the head of an old man. For God's sake, he said, listen to me: I'm waiting for someone who never comes, and I'm worried to death.Please tell me if something unfortunate has happened around here. The window opened slowly again, revealing the face again, only paler than the first time. D'Artagnan told the story honestly, without mentioning the names of the persons involved.He told how he made an appointment with a young woman to meet in front of the small building, how he waited and waited until she didn't come, then climbed to the linden tree, and by the light, he saw the chaos in that room. The old man listened attentively, nodding his head to show that it was the case, but when d'Artagnan had finished he shook his head in a manner which indicated that the situation was very bad. What do you mean?asked d'Artagnan eagerly, for God's sake, alas!Please tell me. cough!Sir, said the old man, ask me nothing, for if I tell what I have seen, I shall surely end in no good. So, did you see what happened?D'Artagnan asked again, if so, for God's sake, he continued, throwing the old man Bistor, tell me, tell me what you saw, and I will be a gentleman. I assure you that your words will be buried deep in my heart, and not a word will be leaked. Seeing from d'Artagnan's face his sincerity and suffering, the old man beckoned d'Artagnan to listen to him, and then began in a low voice: About nine o'clock I heard a commotion in the street, and wondering what was going on, reached the door when I noticed that someone was trying to come in.I am a poor man, so I opened the door because I was not afraid of people stealing.I saw three men standing a few paces from the door, and in the dark stood a carriage with horses harnessed to it, and horses led by hand. The horse held by the hand is obviously the mount of the three men in knight clothes. Hello, dear gentlemen, I exclaim aloud, what can you do? Do you have a ladder at home?The person who looked like the team leader asked. There is, sir, the ladder I use to pick fruit. Give us the ladder and go back to the house.This is one crown, as our compensation for disturbing you.But remember, no matter how much we threaten you with what you're about to see and hear, you're sure to see and hear what you're going to see and hear, and if you tell someone else, you're doomed. Then he threw me a crown, and I picked it up.He carried the ladder and left. After closing the fence gate of the fence behind them, I pretended to go back to the house, but immediately came out by the back door, and slipped in the dark to the elder bush, where I could see everything without being caught. Discover. Those three people drove the carriage to the small building silently, and dragged out a stubby, gray-haired man in shabby dark clothes from inside.The man climbed the ladder cautiously, peeped furtively into the room, then came down on tiptoe, and whispered in a low voice: is her! The man who had spoken to me immediately went to the door of the small building, took out a key from his body, opened the door, went in and closed the door, and disappeared; at the same time, the other two climbed up the ladder, and the little old man stayed behind At the door of the carriage, the driver grabbed the horse driving the carriage, and a servant watched over the other three horses. Suddenly, a loud cry came from the small building, and a woman rushed to the window, opened the window, and seemed to want to jump out.But when she saw the two men on the ladder, she ran back immediately, and the two men jumped into the house to catch her. I didn't see anything after that, I only heard the sound of smashing furniture, and the voice of the woman calling for help, but her mouth was quickly gagged.The three men carried the woman to the window, and two of them got down from the ladder and led her into the carriage, and the little old man got into the carriage.The man who was still in the small building closed the window, came out from the door, and saw that the woman had indeed been stuffed into the carriage, and his two companions were waiting for him on the horseback, so he got on the horseback.The footman climbed up and sat down beside the coachman, and the carriage galloped away under the escort of three horsemen, and everything was over.I have seen nothing and heard nothing since then. D'Artagnan, stupefied by this dreadful news, stood motionless and silent, while a demon of rage and jealousy yelled in his heart. His silent and ruthless look of despair had undoubtedly had a greater impact on the old man than shouts and tears, so the old man comforted him and said: Come, gentlemen, don't be sad, they didn't kill you, that's the main thing. Can you tell, asked d'Artagnan, what kind of man was at the head of this heinous business? I do not know him. However, since he has spoken to you, you should have seen him clearly. oh!Are you asking me about his physical features? Yes. He was tall, thin, tanned, with a black beard, dark eyes, and the air of a gentleman. That's right, cried d'Artagnan, it's him again!It's him every time!It seems that this guy is my nemesis!What about the other one? which one? The short guy. Well!This one is not a gentleman, I'm sure.Besides, he didn't have a sword either, and the others dragged him from the wagon without being polite at all. What a slave!d'Artagnan said to himself, alas!Poor woman!Poor woman!What had they done to her? You promised me to keep it a secret.said the old man. I reiterate my promise, don't worry, I'm a gentleman.Promises are the most important thing in a gentleman, and I promise you mine. D'Artagnan walked sadly towards the ferry.Sometimes he refused to believe that it was Mrs. Bonasseur who was taken away, hoping to see her in the Louvre tomorrow; sometimes he worried that she had an affair with another man and was caught by a jealous third party. .He hesitated, frustrated, desperate. well!If my friends were here, he exclaimed, I would at least have hope of finding her.However, no one even knows what happened to my friends themselves! It was nearly midnight, and the problem now was to find Planchet.He opened the door of each tavern one after another, and looked in through the dim light, but there was no Planchet in any of them. When he reached the door of the sixth house, he realized that it would be too reckless to search like this.He made an appointment with his servant to wait for him at six o'clock in the morning, and now there is nothing wrong with his servant no matter where he is. In addition, our young people had the idea that if they stayed near the place where the accident happened, they might be able to get clues about this mysterious incident.Therefore, finding the sixth tavern, as we have just said, D'Artagnan searched no further, ordered a bottle of good wine, sat down at a table in the darkest corner, and resolved to wait till daylight. .However, this time his hopes were defeated again. Although he strained his ears to listen carefully, all he heard in the environment of this respectable part of society in which he was now was was full of foul language among workers, servants, and coachmen. Jokes and verbal abuse are far from a clue to find the kidnapped woman.Out of boredom and so as not to arouse suspicion, he drank the bottle he asked for, sat down as comfortably as he could in the corner, and fell asleep.The reader will recall that D'Artagnan was only twenty years old, and at this age, even in the most desperate state of mind, nothing can stop him from falling asleep. About six o'clock in the morning, d'Artagnan awoke with a feeling of discomfort, as people who have not slept well at night feel at dawn.He washed himself briefly, touched himself to see if someone had stolen from him while he was asleep, found the ring was still on his finger, the purse was still in his pocket, and the pistol was still in his belt, and he got up to pay the bill. After paying for the drink, I left the shop, wanting to see if finding a servant in the morning was easier than at night.Sure enough, through the damp, gray morning mist, the first thing he saw was honest Planchet, leading two horses, waiting for him in front of a small inn.D'Artagnan passed the inn the night before, without realizing that it was a tavern.