“Pardon me, sire, I cannot stifle M. Fouquet, and if he asks for liberty to breathe, I cannot prevent him by closing both the windows and the blinds. He will throw out at the doors all the cries and notes possible.”
“The case is provided for, Monsieur d’Artagnan; a carriage with a trellis will obviate both the difficulties you point out.”
“A carriage with an iron trellis!” cried D’Artagnan; “but a carriage with an iron trellis is not made in half an hour, and your majesty commands me to go immediately to M. Fouquet’s lodgings.”
“The carriage in question is already made.”
“Ah! that is quite a different thing,” said the captain; “if the carriage is ready made, very well, then, we have only to set it in motion.”
“It is ready—and the horses harnessed.”
“Ah!”
“And the coachman, with the outriders, is waiting in the lower court of the castle.”
D’Artagnan bowed. “There only remains for me to ask your majesty whither I shall conduct M. Fouquet.”
“To the castle of Angers, at first.”