LOUISE DE LA VALLIERE. 413 "Athos, I have an idea; the question is, to spare Aramis the annoyance you were speaking of, is it not?" What is to be done?"
- 'I will tell you; or, in order to explain myself in the
best possible way, let me relate the affair in my own man- ner; I will not recommend you to tell a falsehood, for that would be impossible for you to do; but I will tell falsehoods enough for both; it is so easy to do that with the nature and habits of a Gascon." Athos smiled. The carriage stopped where the one we have just now pointed out had stopped; namely, at the door of the governor's house. "It is understood, then?" said D'Artagnan, in a low voice to his friend. Athos consented by a gesture. They ascended the stair- case. There will be no occasion for surprise at the facility with which they had entered into the Bastile, if it be re- membered that, before passing the first gate, in fact, the most difficult of all, D'Artagnan had announced that he had brought a prisoner of state. At the third gate, on the contrary, that is to say, when he had once fairly entered the prison, he merely said to the sentinel: "To Monsieur Baisemeaux;" and they both passed on. In a few minutes they were in the governor's dining- room, and the first face which attracted D'Artagnan's observation was th^t of Aramis, who was seated side by side with Baisemeaux, and awaited the announcement of a good meal whose odor impregnated the whole apartment. If D'Artagnan pretended surprise, Aramis did not pretend at all; he started when he saw his two friends, and his emotion was very apparent. Athos and D'Artagnan, how- ever, complinxcnted him as usual, and Baisemeaux, amazed, completely stupefied by the presence of his three guests, began to perform a few evolutions around them. "By what lucky accident " "We were Just going to ask you," retorted D'Artagnan. "Are we going to give ourselves up as prisoners?" cried Aramis with an affectation of hilarity. "Ah, ah!" said D'Artagnan; "it is true the walls smell deucedly like a prison. Monsieur de Baisemeaux, you know you invited me to sup with you the other day." "I!" cried Baisemeaux.
- 'Yes, of course you did, although you now seem so struck
with amazement. Don't you remember it?"
