Chapter 63

Chapter LXIII:
Three Guests Astonished to Find Themselves at Supper Together.

The carriage arrived at the outside of the gate of the Bastile. A
soldier on guard stopped it, but D'Artagnan had only to utter a single
word to procure admittance, and the carriage passed on without further
difficulty. Whilst they were proceeding along the covered way which led
to the courtyard of the governor's residence, D'Artagnan, whose lynx eyes
saw everything, even through the walls, suddenly cried out, "What is that
out yonder?"

"Well," said Athos, quietly; "what is it?"

"Look yonder, Athos."

"In the courtyard?"

"Yes, yes; make haste!"

"Well, a carriage; very likely conveying a prisoner like myself."

"That would be too droll."

"I do not understand you."

"Make haste and look again, and look at the man who is just getting out
of that carriage."

At that very moment a second sentinel stopped D'Artagnan, and while the
formalities were being gone through, Athos could see at a hundred paces
from him the man whom his friend had pointed out to him. He was, in
fact, getting out of the carriage at the door of the governor's house.
"Well," inquired D'Artagnan, "do you see him?"

"Yes; he is a man in a gray suit."

"What do you say of him?"

"I cannot very well tell; he is, as I have just now told you, a man in a
gray suit, who is getting out of a carriage; that is all."

"Athos, I will wager anything that it is he."

"He, who?"

"Aramis."

"Aramis arrested? Impossible!"

"I do not say he is arrested, since we see him alone in his carriage."

"Well, then, what is he doing here?"

"Oh! he knows Baisemeaux, the governor," replied the musketeer, slyly;
"so we have arrived just in time."

"What for?"

"In order to see what we can see."

"I regret this meeting exceedingly. When Aramis sees me, he will be very
much annoyed, in the first place, at seeing me, and in the next at being
seen."

"Very well reasoned."

"Unfortunately, there is no remedy for it; whenever any one meets another
in the Bastile, even if he wished to draw back to avoid him, it would be
impossible."

"Athos, I have an idea; the question is, to spare Aramis the annoyance
you were speaking of, is it not?"

"What is to be done?"

"I will tell you; or in order to explain myself in the best possible way,
let me relate the affair in my own manner; I will not recommend you to
tell a falsehood, for that would be impossible for you to do; but I will
tell falsehoods enough for both; it is easy to do that when one is born
to the nature and habits of a Gascon."

Athos smiled. The carriage