Title: Three Musketeers Author: Dumas, Alexandre Date: 1844 Chapter LXVI Execution It was near midnight; the moon, lessened by its decline and reddened by the last traces of the storm, arose behind the little town of Armentieres, which showed against its pale light the dark outline of its houses, and the outline of its high belfry. In front of them the Lys rolled its waters like a river of melted lead; while on the other side was a black mass of trees, cutting a stormy sky, invaded by large coppery clouds, which created a sort of twilight amid the night. On the left was an old abandoned mill, with its motionless wings from the ruins of which an owl threw out its shrill, periodical, and monotonous cry. On the right and on the left of the road, which the dismal cortege pursued, appeared a few low, stunted trees, which looked like deformed dwarfs crouching down to watch men traveling at this sinister hour. From time to time a broad sheet of lightning opened the horizon in its whole width, darted like a serpent over the black mass of trees, and, like a terrible scimitar, divided the heavens and the waters into two parts. Not a breath of wind now disturbed the heavy atmosphere. A deathlike silence oppressed all nature, the soil was humid and glittering with the rain which had recently fallen, and the refreshed herbs threw forth their perfume with additional energy. Two of the lackeys now led, or rather dragged, along milady by her arms; the executioner walked behind them, and Lord de Winter, D'Artagnan, Porthos, and Aramis walked behind the executioner. Planchet and Bazin came last. The two lackeys led milady to the banks of the river. Her mouth was mute; but her eyes spoke with their inexpressible eloquence, supplicating by turns each of those she looked at. Being a few paces in advance, she whispered to the lackeys: "A thousand pistoles to each of you, if you will assist my escape; but if you deliver me up to your masters, I have, near at hand, avengers who will make you pay for my death very dearly." Grimaud hesitated; Mousqueton trembled in all his members. Athos, who heard milady's voice, came sharply up; Lord de Winter did the same. "Change these lackeys," said he, "she has spoken to them, they are no longer safe." Planchet and Bazin were called forward, and took the places of Grimaud and Mousqueton. When they arrived on the banks of the river, the executioner approached milady, and bound her hands and feet. Then she broke silence to cry out: "You are base cowards, miserable assassins, ten men combined to murder one woman; beware! if I am not saved I shall be avenged." "You are not a woman," said Athos, coldly and sternly, "you do not belong to the human species: you are a demon escaped from hell, to which place we are going to send you back again." "Ah! you virtuous men!" said milady, "but please to remember that he who shall touch a hair of my head is himself an assassin." "The executioner can kill, madam, without being on that account an assassin," said the man in the red cloak, striking upon his immense sword; "this is the last judge; that is all: Nachrichter, as our neighbors, the Germans, say." And as he bound her while saying these words, milady uttered two or three wild cries, which produced a strange and melancholy effect in flying away into the night, and losing themselves in the depths of the woods. "If I am guilty, if I have committed the crimes you accuse me of," shrieked milady, "take me before a tribunal; you are not judges; you cannot condemn me!" "Why, I did offer you Tyburn," said Lord de Winter, "why did you not accept it?" "Because I am not willing to die!" cried milady, struggling, "because I am too young to die!" "The woman you poisoned at Bethune was still younger than you, madame, and yet she is dead," said D'Artagnan. "I will enter a cloister, I will become a nun," said milady. "You were in a cloister," said the executioner, "and you left it to destroy my brother." Milady uttered a cry of terror, and sank upon her knees. The executioner took her up in his arms, and was carrying her toward the boat. "Oh! my God!" cried she, "my God! are you going to drown me?" These cries had something so heartrending in them, that M. d'Artagnan, who had been at first the most eager in pursuit of milady, sank down on the stump of a tree, and leaned down his head, covering his ears with the palms of his hands; and yet, notwithstanding, he could not help hearing her cry and threaten. D'Artagnan was the youngest of all these men; his heart failed him. "Oh! I cannot behold this frightful spectacle!" said he; "I cannot consent that this woman should die thus!" Milady heard these few words, and caught at a shadow of hope. "D'Artagnan! D'Artagnan!" cried she, "remember that I loved you!" The young man rose, and made a step toward her. But Athos rose, likewise, drew his sword, and placed himself between them. "One step further, M. d'Artagnan," said he, "and, dearly as I love you, we cross swords." M. d'Artagnan sank on his knees and prayed. "Come!" continued Athos, "executioner, do your duty." "Willingly, monseigneur," said the executioner; "for, as I am a good Catholic, I firmly believe I am acting justly in performing my functions on this woman." "That's well." Athos made a step toward milady. "I pardon you," said he, "the ill you have done me; I pardon you for my blasted future, my lost honor, my defiled love, and my salvation forever compromised by the despair into which you have cast me. Die in peace!" Lord de Winter advanced in his turn. "I pardon you," said he, "the poisoning of my brother, the assassination of his grace the Duke of Buckingham; I pardon you the death of poor Felton, I pardon you the attempts upon my own person. Die in peace." "And I," said M. d'Artagnan. "Pardon me, madame, for having by a trick, unworthy of a gentleman, provoked your anger; and I, in exchange, pardon you for the murder of my poor love, and your cruel vengeance against me. I pardon you, and I weep for you. Die in peace." "I am lost!" murmured milady, in English; "I must die!" Then she rose up herself, and cast around her one of those piercing looks which seemed to dart from an eye of flame. She saw nothing. She listened, and she heard nothing. "Where am I to die?" said she. "On the other bank," replied the executioner. Then he placed her in the boat, and as he was going to set foot in it himself, Athos handed him a purse of gold. "Here," said he, "is the pay for the execution, that it may be plain we act as judges." "That is correct," said the executioner; "and now, in her turn, let this woman see that I am not fulfilling my trade, but my duty." And he threw the money into the river. The boat moved off toward the left-hand shore of the Lys, bearing the guilty woman and the executioner; all the others remained on the right-hand bank, where they fell on their knees. The boat glided along the ferry-rope under the shadow of a pale cloud which hung over the water at the moment. The troop of friends saw it gain the opposite bank; the persons cut the red-tinted horizon with a black shade. Milady, during her passage, had contrived to untie the cord which fastened her feet; on coming near to the bank, she jumped lightly on shore and took to flight. But the soil was moist: on gaining the top of the bank, she slipped and fell upon her knees. She was struck, no doubt, with a superstitious idea: she conceived that heaven denied its succor, and she remained in the attitude she had fallen in, with her head drooping and her hands clasped. Then they saw from the other bank the executioner raise both his arms slowly, a moonbeam fell upon the blade of the large sword, the two arms fell with a sudden force: they heard the hissing of the scimitar and the cry of the victim, then a truncated mass sank beneath the blow. The executioner then took off his red cloak, spread it upon the ground, laid the body in it, threw in the head, tied all up with the four corners, lifted it on to his back, and got into the boat again. When he arrived in the middle of the stream, he stopped the boat, and suspending his burden over the water: "Let the justice of God be done!" cried he with a loud voice. And he let the body drop into the depths of the water, which closed over it. Within three days the four musketeers were in Paris; they had not exceeded their leave of absence, and that same evening went to pay their customary visit to M. de Treville. "Well gentlemen," said the brave captain, "I hope you have enjoyed your excursion." "Prodigiously!" replied Athos, for himself and his companions.