Duke of Buckingham to be assassinated, in exchange for the promise he has made you to allow you to assassinate d’Artagnan.”
Milady was livid.
“You must be Satan!” cried she.
“Perhaps,” said Athos; “But at all events listen well to this. Assassinate the Duke of Buckingham, or cause him to be assassinated—I care very little about that! I don’t know him. Besides, he is an Englishman. But do not touch with the tip of your finger a single hair of d’Artagnan, who is a faithful friend whom I love and defend, or I swear to you by the head of my father the crime which you shall have endeavored to commit, or shall have committed, shall be the last.”
“Monsieur d’Artagnan has cruelly insulted me,” said Milady, in a hollow tone; “Monsieur d’Artagnan shall die!”
“Indeed! Is it possible to insult you, Madame?” said Athos, laughing; “he has insulted you, and he shall die!”
“He shall die!” replied Milady; “she first, and he afterwards.”
Athos was seized with a kind of vertigo. The sight of this creature, who had nothing of the woman about her, recalled awful remembrances. He thought how one day, in a less dangerous situation than the one in which he was now placed, he had already endeavored to sacrifice her to his honor. His desire for blood returned, burning his brain and pervading his frame like a raging fever; he arose in his turn, reached his hand to his belt, drew forth a pistol, and cocked it.
Milady, pale as a corpse, endeavored to cry out; but her swollen tongue could utter no more than a hoarse sound which had nothing human in it and resembled the rattle of a wild beast. Motionless against the dark tapestry, with her hair in disorder, she appeared like a horrid image of terror.