"I shall take a second horse with me. Select your own rendezvous, and while you are waiting there you can practice some of the best passes, so as to get your limbs as elastic as possible."
"Thank you. I shall be waiting for you in the wood of Vincennes, close to Minimes."
"All's right, then. Where am I to find this M. de Saint-Aignan?"
"At the Palais Royal."
Porthos rang a huge handbell. "My court suit," he said to the servant who answered the summons, "my horse, and a led horse to accompany me." Then, turning to Raoul as soon as the servant had quitted the room, he said, "Does your father know anything about this?"
"No; I am going to write to him."
"And D'Artagnan?"
"No, nor D'Artagnan, either. He is very cautious, you know, and might have diverted me from my purpose."
"D'Artagnan is a sound adviser, though," said Porthos, astonished that, in his own loyal faith in D'Artagnan, anyone could have thought of himself, so long as there was a D'Artagnan in the world.
"Dear M. de Valon," replied Raoul, "do not question me any more, I implore you. I have told you all that I had to say; it is prompt action that I now expect, as sharp and decided as you know how to arrange it. That, indeed, is my reason for having chosen you."