“Alas, monseigneur!” replied the young man, “very easily, no doubt, for they are strong and well supported, while I am alone.”
“Yes, that’s true; but alone as you are, you have done much already, and will do still more, I don’t doubt. Yet you have need, I believe, to be guided in the adventurous career you have undertaken; for, if I mistake not, you came to Paris with the ambitious idea of making your fortune.”
“I am at the age of extravagant hopes, monseigneur,” said d’Artagnan.
“There are no extravagant hopes but for fools, Monsieur, and you are a man of understanding. Now, what would you say to an ensign’s commission in my Guards, and a company after the campaign?”
“Ah, monseigneur.”
“You accept it, do you not?”
“Monseigneur,” replied d’Artagnan, with an embarrassed air.
“How? You refuse?” cried the cardinal, with astonishment.
“I am in His Majesty’s Guards, monseigneur, and I have no reason to be dissatisfied.”
“But it appears to me that my Guards—mine—are also His Majesty’s Guards; and whoever serves in a French corps serves the king.”
“Monseigneur, your Eminence has ill understood my words.”
“You want a pretext, do you not? I comprehend. Well, you have this excuse: advancement, the opening campaign, the opportunity which I offer you—so much for the world. As regards yourself, the need of protection; for it is fit you should know, M. d’Artagnan, that I have received heavy and serious complaints against you. You do not consecrate your days and nights wholly to the king’s service.”