ok his head and interrupted
himself. "No," said he; "I should not dare to relate this to Athos;
the way is therefore not honorable. I must use violence," continued
he,--"very certainly I must, but without compromising my loyalty. With
forty men I will traverse the country as a partisan. But if I fall
in with, not forty thousand English, as Planchet said, but purely and
simply with four hundred, I shall be beaten. Supposing that among my
forty warriors there should be found at least ten stupid ones--ten who
will allow themselves to be killed one after the other, from mere
folly? No; it is, in fact, impossible to find forty men to be depended
upon--they do not exist. I must learn how to be contented with thirty.
With ten men less I should have the right of avoiding any armed
encounter, on account of the small number of my people; and if the
encounter should take place, my chance is better with thirty men than
forty. Besides, I should save five thousand francs; that is to say, the
eighth of my capital; that is worth the trial. This being so, I should
have thirty men. I shall divide them into three bands,--we will spread
ourselves about over the country, with an injunction to reunite at
a given moment; in this fashion, ten by ten, we should excite no
suspicion--we should pass unperceived. Yes, yes, thirty--that is a
magic number. There are three tens--three, that divine number! And then,
truly, a company of thirty men, when all together, will look rather
imposing. Ah! stupid wretch that I am!" continued D'Artagnan, "I want
thirty horses. That is ruinous. Where the devil was my head when I
forgot the horses? We cannot, however, think of striking such a blow
without horses. Well, so be it, that sacrifice must be made; we can
get the horses in the country--they are not bad, besides. But I
forgot--peste! Three bands--that necessitates three leaders; there is
the difficulty. Of the three commanders I have already one--that is
myself;--yes, but the two others will of themselves cost almost as much
money as all the rest of the troop. No; positively I must have but one
lieutenant. In that ease, then, I should reduce my troop to twenty men.
I know very well that twenty men is but very little; but since with
thirty I was determined not to seek to come to blows, I should do so
more carefully still with twenty. Twenty--that is a round number;
that, besides, reduces the number of the horses by ten, which is a
consideration; and then, wit