9 D’Artagnan Loses His Love

CHAPTER 9 D'Artagnan Loses His Love, but Finds Porthos D'Artagnan made his way to his meeting with Constance Bonacieux at a small house on the outskirts of the city. He arrived on time and waited for her outside. After a few hours, he decided to look in a lit window on the second floor. He climbed a tree and was shocked at the sight inside. The room was a mess, as if there had been a great struggle. D'Artagnan began to panic. He was worried that Constance had

been kidnapped again. He ran to a house across the road, where an old man answered the door. D'Artagnan begged the old man to tell him if anything strange had happened at the house across the street. The man said that five men had kicked open the door of the house and dragged a young woman out. She had been screaming. They carried her to a carriage and drove away. "Only one of the men didn't wear a sword. He was short and fat, older, nearly bald," the old man said. "The ringleader was a tall man with a mustache and black eyes. I believe he had a scar on his face." With a heavy heart, D'Artagnan returned home. Monsieur Bonacieux was waiting for someone outside and grew nervous when he saw D'Artagnan. D'Artagnan was suspicious of everyone and studied his landlord closely.

Then he thought, Short and fat, older, nearly bald. Monsieur Bonacieux helped kidnap his own wife! D'Artagnan hurried up to his room, where Planchet told him that two messages had arrived earlier. One was a letter for Aramis. The other was for D'Artagnan. The Cardinal wanted to see him immediately. This is too much, D'Artagnan thought. Now the Cardinal himself is after me personally. I must escape and find my friends. D'Artagnan and Planchet gathered several horses and rode out to the inn where they had left Porthos. "Oh yes," the innkeeper said, when D'Artagnan arrived. "Monsieur Porthos is here. He is in our best room, in fact. We have been worried about him." "Is he hurt?" D'Artagnan asked. "No, we were worried about his expenses,"

said the innkeeper. "He eats our best food every day, but we haven't been able to get him to pay us. Whenever we ask, he nearly attacks us. Everyone here is terrified of him." "He does have a short temper," D'Artagnan said, laughing. "Especially when he has no money. You don't need to worry. He will be able to pay you. He's under the protection of a fine, wealthy young lady back in Paris. He has told me this many times." "I'm afraid he hasn't told you everything, then," the innkeeper said. "You see, he gave us a letter for his duchess and I decided to bring it to her myself. His young lady is actually well over fifty years old, although she behaves as if she's much younger." "She isn't wealthy or beautiful?" D'Artagnan asked. "Unfortunately not," said the innkeeper. "She called him nasty names and said she would not help him until he came to see her,

even though he was hurt. He was injured in his duel, you see. The man he fought managed to hurt Monsieur Porthos quite badly. After the duel, the man asked for your friend's name. When he learned it was Porthos, the man apologized and said he had been looking for a Monsieur D'Artagnan. Do you know him?" "I've never heard of him," D'Artagnan said carefully. "Please tell me where my friend is and I will make sure you are paid for his stay." The innkeeper directed D'Artagnan to a room upstairs where Porthos and his assistant were playing cards. "D'Artagnan, is that you?" Porthos said. "It is good to see you again, at last! I'm afraid I can't stand up to greet you, for I'm still injured. Have you spoken to the landlord about me?" D'Artagnan didn't want to embarrass his

friend, so he said the landlord hadn't said anything about him. Porthos told D'Artagnan that he had easily won his fight with the stranger, but then he had tripped over some rocks and hurt himself. D'Artagnan knew his friend was too embarrassed to say that he hadn't won the duel. "Why haven't you come back to Paris?" he asked. "I was going to return. I'm very bored here," Porthos said. "Unfortunately, I met some travelers one night and, even though they seemed friendly, they stole my money and my horses while I was asleep. I've been waiting for my beautiful duchess to send me the money to return. She is very much in love with me, you understand. I'm sure she will send the money when she receives my letter." "I know she will," D'Artagnan said. Then he told Porthos of his adventures since they