Strength and Sagacity -- Continued.
Supper was eaten in silence, but not in sadness; for from time to time one of those sweet smiles which were habitual to him in moments of good-humor illumined the face of D'Artagnan. Not a scintilla of these was lost on Porthos; and at every one he uttered an exclamation which betrayed to his friend that he had not lost sight of the idea which possessed his brain.
At dessert D'Artagnan reposed in his chair, crossed one leg over the other and lounged about like a man perfectly at his ease.
Porthos rested his chin on his hands, placed his elbows on the table and looked at D'Artagnan with an expression of confidence which imparted to that colossus an admirable appearance of good-fellowship.
"Well?" said D'Artagnan, at last.
"Well!" repeated Porthos.
"You were saying, my dear friend ---- "
"No; I said nothing."
"Yes; you were saying you wished to leave this place."
"Ah, indeed! the will was never wanting."
"To get away you would not mind, you added, knocking down a door or a wall."
"'Tis true -- I said so, and I say it again."
"And I answered you, Porthos, that it was not a good plan; that we couldn't go a hundred steps without being recaptured, because we were without clothes to disguise ourselves and arms to defend ourselves."
"That is true; we should need clothes and arms."
"Well," said D'Artagnan, rising, "we have them, friend Porthos, and even something better."
"Bah!" said Porthos, looking around.
"Useless to look; everything will come to us when wanted. At about what time did we see the two Swiss guards walking yesterday?"
"An hour after sunset."
"If they go out to-day as they did yesterday we shall have the honor, then, of seeing them in half an hour?"
"In a quarter of an hour at most."
"Your arm is still strong enough, is it not, Porthos?"
Porthos unbuttoned his sleeve, raised his shirt and looked complacently on his strong arm, as large as the leg of any ordinary man.
"Yes, indeed," said he, "I believe so."
"So that you could without trouble convert these tongs into a hoop and yonder shovel into a corkscrew?"
"Certainly." And the giant took up these two articles, and without any apparent effort produced in them the metamorphoses suggested by his companion.
"There!" he cried.
"Capital!" exclaimed the Gascon. "Really, Porthos, you are a gifted individual!"
"I have heard speak," said Porthos, "of a certain Milo of Crotona, who performed wonderful feats, such as binding his forehead with a cord and bursting it -- of killing an ox with a blow of his fist and carrying it home on his shoulders, et cetera. I used to learn all these feat by heart yonder, down at Pierrefonds, and I have done all that he did except breaking a cord by the corrugation of my temples."
"Because your strength is not in your head, Porthos," said his friend.
"No; it is in my arms and shoulders," answered Porthos with gratified naivete.
"Well, my dear friend, let us approach the window and there you can match your strength against that of an iron bar."
Porthos went to the window, took a bar in his hands, clung to it and bent it like a bow; so that the two ends came out of the sockets of stone in which for thirty years they had been fixed.
"Well! friend, the cardinal, although such a genius, could never have done that."
"Shall I take out any more of them?" asked Porthos.
"No; that is sufficient; a man can pass through that."
Porthos tried, and passed the upper portion of his body through.
"Yes," he said.
"Now pass your arm through this opening."
"Why?"
"You will know presently -- pass it."
Porthos obeyed with military promptness and passed his arm through the opening.
"Admirable!" said D'Artagnan.
"The scheme goes forward, it seems."
"On wheels, dear friend."
"Good! What shall I do now?"
"Nothing."
"It is finished, then?"
"No, not yet."
"I should like to understand," said Porthos.
"Listen, my dear friend; in two words you will know all. The door of the guardhouse opens, as you see."
"Yes, I see."
"They are about to send into our court, which Monsieur de Mazarin crosses on his way to the orangery, the two guards who attend him."
"There they are, coming out."
"If only they close the guardhouse door! Good! They close it."
"What, then?"
"Silence! They may hear us."
"I don't understand it at all."
"As you execute you will understand."
"And yet I should have preferred ---- "
"You will have the pleasure of the surprise."
"Ah, that is true."
"Hush!"
Porthos remained silent and motionless.
In fact, the two soldiers advanced on the side where the window was, rubbing their hands, for it was cold, it being the month of February.
At this moment the door of the guardhouse was opened and one of the soldiers was summoned away.
"Now," said D'Artagnan, "I am going to call this soldier and talk to him. Don't lose a word of what I'm going to say to you, Porthos. Everything lies in the execution."
"Good, the execution of plots is my forte."
"I know it well. I depend on you. Look, I shall turn to the left, so that the soldier will be at your right, as soon as he mounts on the bench to talk to us."
"But supposing he doesn't mount?"
"He will; rely upon it. As soon as you see him get up, stretch out your arm and seize him by the neck. Then, raising him up as Tobit raised the fish by the gills, you must pull him into the room, taking care to squeeze him so tight that he can't cry out."
"Oh!" said Porthos. "Suppose I happen to strangle him?"
"To be sure there would only be a Swiss the less in the world; but you will not do so, I hope. Lay him down here; we'll gag him and tie him -- no matter where -- somewhere.
So we shall get from him one uniform and a sword."
"Marvelous!" exclaimed Porthos, looking at the Gascon with the most profound admiration.
"Pooh!" replied D'Artagnan.
"Yes," said Porthos, recollecting himself, "but one uniform and one sword will not suffice for two."
"Well; but there's his comrade."
"True," said Porthos.
"Therefore, when I cough, stretch out your arm."
"Good!"