The Siege of La Rochelle was one of the great politicalevents of the reign of Louis XIII, and one of the greatmilitary enterprises of the cardinal. It is, then,interesting and even necessary that we should say a fewwords about it, particularly as many details of this siegeare connected in too important a manner with the story wehave undertaken to relate to allow us to pass it over insilence.

The political plans of the cardinal when he undertook thissiege were extensive. Let us unfold them first, and thenpass on to the private plans which perhaps had not lessinfluence upon his Eminence than the others.

Of the important cities given up by Henry IV to theHuguenots as places of safety, there only remained LaRochelle. It became necessary, therefore, to destroy thislast bulwark of Calvinism - a dangerous leaven with which theferments of civil revolt and foreign war were constantlymingling.

Spaniards, Englishmen, and Italian malcontents, adventurersof all nations, and soldiers of fortune of every sect,flocked at the first summons under the standard of theProtestants, and organized themselves like a vastassociation, whose branches diverged freely over all partsof Europe.

La Rochelle, which had derived a new importance from theruin of the other Calvinist cities, was, then, the focus ofdissensions and ambition. Moreover, its port was the lastin the kingdom of France open to the English, and by closingit against England, our eternal enemy, the cardinalcompleted the work of Joan of Arc and the Duc de Guise.

Thus Bassompierre, who was at once Protestant and Catholic - Protestant by conviction and Catholic as commander of theorder of the Holy Ghost; Bassompierre, who was a German bybirth and a Frenchman at heart - in short, Bassompierre, whohad a distinguished command at the siege of La Rochelle,said, in charging at the head of several other Protestantnobles like himself, "You will see, gentlemen, that we shallbe fools enough to take La Rochelle."

And Bassompierre was right. The cannonade of the Isle of Represaged to him the dragonnades of the Cevennes; the takingof La Rochelle was the preface to the revocation of theEdict of Nantes.

We have hinted that by the side of these views of theleveling and simplifying minister, which belong to history,the chronicler is forced to recognize the lesser motives ofthe amorous man and jealous rival.

Richelieu, as everyone knows, had loved the queen. Was thislove a simple political affair, or was it naturally one ofthose profound passions which Anne of Austria inspired inthose who approached her? That we are not able to say; butat all events, we have seen, by the anterior developments ofthis story, that Buckingham had the advantage over him, andin two or three circumstances, particularly that of thediamond studs, had, thanks to the devotedness of the threeMusketeers and the courage and conduct of D'Artagnan,cruelly mystified him.

It was, then, Richelieu's object, not only to get rid of anenemy of France, but to avenge himself on a rival; but thisvengeance must be grand and striking and worthy in every wayof a man who held in his hand, as his weapon for combat, theforces of a kingdom.

Richelieu knew that in combating England he combatedBuckingham; that in triumphing over England he triumphedover Buckingham - in short, that in humiliating England inthe eyes of Europe he humiliated Buckingham in the eyes ofthe queen.

On his side Buckingham, in pretending to maintain the honorof England, was moved by interests exactly like those of thecardinal. Buckingham also was pursuing a private vengeance.Buckingham could not under any pretense be admitted intoFrance as an ambassador; he wished to enter it as aconqueror.

It resulted from this that the real stake in this game,which two most powerful kingdoms played for the goodpleasure of two amorous men, was simply a kind look fromAnne of Austria.

The first advantage had been gained by Buckingham. Arrivingunexpectedly in sight of the Isle of Re with ninety vesselsand nearly twenty thousand men, he had surprised the Comtede Toiras, who commanded for the king in the Isle, and hehad, after a bloody conflict, effected his landing.

Allow us to observe in passing that in this fight perishedthe Baron de Chantal; that the Baron de Chantal left alittle orphan girl eighteen months old, and that this littlegirl was afterward Mme. de Sevigne.

The Comte de Toiras retired into the citadel St. Martin withhis garrison, and threw a hundred men into a little fortcalled the fort of La Pree.

This event had hastened the resolutions of the cardinal; andtill the king and he could take the command of the siege ofLa Rochelle, which was determined, he had sent Monsieur todirect the first operations, and had ordered all the troopshe could dispose of to march toward the theater of war. Itwas of this detachment, sent as a vanguard, that our friendD'Artagnan formed a part.

The king, as we have said, was to follow as soon as his Bedof Justice had been held; but on rising from his Bed ofJustice on the twenty-eighth of June, he felt himselfattacked by fever. He was, notwithstanding, anxious to setout; but his illness becoming more serious, he was forced tostop at Villeroy.

Now, whenever the king halted, the Musketeers halted. Itfollowed that D'Artagnan, who was as yet purely and simplyin the Guards, found himself, for the time at least,separated from his good friends - Athos, Porthos, and Aramis.This separation, which was no more than an unpleasantcircumstance, would have certainly become a cause of seriousuneasiness if he had been able to guess by what unknowndangers he was surrounded.

He, however, arrived without accident in the campestablished before La Rochelle, of the tenth of the month ofSeptember of the year 1627.

Everything was in the same state. The Duke of Buckinghamand his English, masters of the Isle of Re, continued tobesiege, but without success, the citadel St. Martin and thefort of La Pree; and hostilities with La Rochelle hadcommenced, two or three days before, about a fort which theDuc d'Angouleme had caused to be constructed near the city.

The Guards, under the command of M. Dessessart, took uptheir quartered at the Minimes; but, as we know, D'Artagnan,possessed with ambition to enter the Musketeers, had formedbut few friendships among his comrades, and he felt himselfisolated and given up to his own reflections.

His reflections were not very cheerful. From the time ofhis arrival in Paris, he had been mixed up with publicaffairs; but his own private affairs had made no greatprogress, either in love or fortune. As to love, the onlywoman he could have loved was Mme. Bonacieux; and Mme.Bonacieux had disappeared, without his being able todiscover what had become of her. As to fortune, he hadmade - he, humble as he was - an enemy of the cardinal; thatis to say, of a man before whom trembled the greatest men ofthe kingdom, beginning with the king.

That man had the power to crush him, and yet he had not doneso. For a mind so perspicuous as that of D'Artagnan, thisindulgence was a light by which he caught a glimpse of abetter future.

Then he had made himself another enemy, less to be feared,he thought; but nevertheless, he instinctively felt, not tobe despised. This enemy was Milady.

In exchange for all this, he had acquired the protection andgood will of the queen; but the favor of the queen was atthe present time an additional cause of persecution, and herprotection, as it was known, protected badly - as witnessChalais and Mme. Bonacieux.

What he had clearly gained in all this was the diamond,worth five or six thousand livres, which he wore on hisfinger; and even this diamond - supposing that D'Artagnan, inhis projects of ambition, wished to keep it, to make itsomeday a pledge for the gratitude of the queen - had not inthe meanwhile, since he could not part with it, more valuethan the gravel he trod under his feet.

We say the gravel he trod under his feet, for D'Artagnanmade these reflections while walking solitarily along apretty little road which led from the camp to the village ofAngoutin. Now, these reflections had led him further thanhe intended, and the day was beginning to decline when, bythe last ray of the setting sun, he thought he saw thebarrel of a musket glitter from behind a hedge.

D'Artagnan had a quick eye and a prompt understanding. Hecomprehended that the musket had not come there of itself,and that he who bore it had not concealed himself behind ahedge with any friendly intentions. He determined,therefore, to direct his course as clear from it as he couldwhen, on the opposite side of the road, from behind a rock,he perceived the extremity of another musket.

This was evidently an ambuscade.

The young man cast a glance at the first musket and saw,with a certain degree of inquietude, that it was leveled inhis direction; but as soon as he perceived that the orificeof the barrel was motionless, he threw himself upon theground. At the same instant the gun was fired, and he heardthe whistling of a ball pass over his head.

No time was to be lost. D'Artagnan sprang up with a bound,and at the same instant the ball from the other musket toreup the gravel on the very spot on the road where he hadthrown himself with his face to the ground.

D'Artagnan was not one of those foolhardy men who seek aridiculous death in order that it may be said of them thatthey did not retreat a single step. Besides, courage wasout of the question here; D'Artagnan had fallen into anambush.

"If there is a third shot," said he to himself, "I am a lostman."

He immediately, therefore, took to his heels and ran towardthe camp, with the swiftness of the young men of hiscountry, so renowned for their agility; but whatever mightbe his speed, the first who fired, having had time toreload, fired a second shot, and this time so well aimedthat it struck his hat, and carried it ten paces from him.

As he, however, had no other hat, he picked up this as heran, and arrived at his quarters very pale and quite out ofbreath. He sat down without saying a word to anybody, andbegan to reflect.

This event might have three causes:

The first and the most natural was that it might be anambuscade of the Rochellais, who might not be sorry to killone of his Majesty's Guards, because it would be an enemythe less, and this enemy might have a well-furnished pursein his pocket.

D'Artagnan took his hat, examined the hole made by the ball,and shook his head. The ball was not a musket ball - it wasan arquebus ball. The accuracy of the aim had first givenhim the idea that a special weapon had been employed. Thiscould not, then, be a military ambuscade, as the ball wasnot of the regular caliber.

This might be a kind remembrance of Monsieur the Cardinal.It may be observed that at the very moment when, thanks tothe ray of the sun, he perceived the gun barrel, he wasthinking with astonishment on the forbearance of hisEminence with respect to him.

But D'Artagnan again shook his head. For people toward whomhe had but to put forth his hand, his Eminence had rarelyrecourse to such means.

It might be a vengeance of Milady; that was most probable.

He tried in vain to remember the faces or dress of theassassins; he had escaped so rapidly that he had not hadleisure to notice anything.

"Ah, my poor friends!" murmured D'Artagnan; "where are you?And that you should fail me!"

D'Artagnan passed a very bad night. Three or four times hestarted up, imagining that a man was approaching his bed forthe purpose of stabbing him. Nevertheless, day dawnedwithout darkness having brought any accident.

But D'Artagnan well suspected that that which was deferredwas not relinquished.

D'Artagnan remained all day in his quarters, assigning as areason to himself that the weather was bad.

At nine o'clock the next morning, the drums beat to arms.The Duc d'Orleans visited the posts. The guards were underarms, and D'Artagnan took his place in the midst of hiscomrades.

Monsieur passed along the front of the line; then all thesuperior officers approached him to pay their compliments,M. Dessessart, captain of the Guards, as well as the others.

At the expiration of a minute or two, it appeared toD'Artagnan that M. Dessessart made him a sign to approach.He waited for a fresh gesture on the part of his superior,for fear he might be mistaken; but this gesture beingrepeated, he left the ranks, and advanced to receive orders.

"Monsieur is about to ask for some men of good will for adangerous mission, but one which will do honor to those whoshall accomplish it; and I made you a sign in order that youmight hold yourself in readiness."

"Thanks, my captain!" replied D'Artagnan, who wished fornothing better than an opportunity to distinguish himselfunder the eye of the lieutenant general.

In fact the Rochellais had made a sortie during the night,and had retaken a bastion of which the royal army had gainedpossession two days before. The matter was to ascertain, byreconnoitering, how the enemy guarded this bastion.

At the end of a few minutes Monsieur raised his voice, andsaid, "I want for this mission three or four volunteers, ledby a man who can be depended upon."

"As to the man to be depended upon, I have him under myhand, monsieur," said M. Dessessart, pointing to D'Artagnan;"and as to the four or five volunteers, Monsieur has but tomake his intentions known, and the men will not be wanting."

"Four men of good will who will risk being killed with me!"said D'Artagnan, raising his sword.

Two of his comrades of the Guards immediately sprangforward, and two other soldiers having joined them, thenumber was deemed sufficient. D'Artagnan declined allothers, being unwilling to take the first chance from thosewho had the priority.

It was not know whether, after the taking of the bastion,the Rochellais had evacuated it or left a garrison in it;the object then was to examine the place near enough toverify the reports.

D'Artagnan set out with his four companions, and followedthe trench; the two Guards marched abreast with him, and thetwo soldiers followed behind.

They arrived thus, screened by the lining of the trench,till they came within a hundred paces of the bastion.There, on turning round, D'Artagnan perceived that the twosoldiers had disappeared.

He thought that, beginning to be afraid, they had stayedbehind, and he continued to advance.

At the turning of the counterscarp they found themselveswithin about sixty paces of the bastion. They saw no one,and the bastion seemed abandoned.

The three composing our forlorn hope were deliberatingwhether they should proceed any further, when all at once acircle of smoke enveloped the giant of stone, and a dozenballs came whistling around D'Artagnan and his companions.

They knew all they wished to know; the bastion was guarded.A longer stay in this dangerous spot would have been uselessimprudence. D'Artagnan and his two companions turned theirbacks, and commenced a retreat which resembled a flight.

On arriving at the angle of the trench which was to servethem as a rampart, one of the Guardsmen fell. A ball hadpassed through his breast. The other, who was safe andsound, continued his way toward the camp.

D'Artagnan was not willing to abandon his companion thus,and stooped to raise him and assist him in regaining thelines; but at this moment two shots were fired. One ballstruck the head of the already-wounded guard, and the otherflattened itself against a rock, after having passed withintwo inches of D'Artagnan.

The young man turned quickly round, for this attack couldnot have come from the bastion, which was hidden by theangle of the trench. The idea of the two soldiers who hadabandoned him occurred to his mind, and with them heremembered the assassins of two evenings before. Heresolved this time to know with whom he had to deal, andfell upon the body of his comrade as if he were dead.

He quickly saw two heads appear above an abandoned workwithin thirty paces of him; they were the heads of the twosoldiers. D'Artagnan had not been deceived; these two menhad only followed for the purpose of assassinating him,hoping that the young man's death would be placed to theaccount of the enemy.

As he might be only wounded and might denounce their crime,they came up to him with the purpose of making sure.Fortunately, deceived by D'Artagnan's trick, they neglectedto reload their guns.

When they were within ten paces of him, D'Artagnan, who infalling had taken care not to let go his sword, sprang upclose to them.

The assassins comprehended that if they fled toward the campwithout having killed their man, they should be accused byhim; therefore their first idea was to join the enemy. Oneof them took his gun by the barrel, and used it as he woulda club. He aimed a terrible blow at D'Artagnan, who avoidedit by springing to one side; but by this movement he left apassage free to the bandit, who darted off toward thebastion. As the Rochellais who guarded the bastion wereignorant of the intentions of the man they saw coming towardthem, they fired upon him, and he fell, struck by a ballwhich broke his shoulder.

Meantime D'Artagnan had thrown himself upon the othersoldier, attacking him with his sword. The conflict was notlong; the wretch had nothing to defend himself with but hisdischarged arquebus. The sword of the Guardsman slippedalong the barrel of the now-useless weapon, and passedthrough the thigh of the assassin, who fell.

D'Artagnan immediately placed the point of his sword at histhroat.

"Oh, do not kill me!" cried the bandit. "Pardon, pardon, myofficer, and I will tell you all."

"Is your secret of enough importance to me to spare yourlife for it?" asked the young man, withholding his arm.

"Yes; if you think existence worth anything to a man oftwenty, as you are, and who may hope for everything, beinghandsome and brave, as you are."

"Wretch," cried D'Artagnan, "speak quickly! Who employedyou to assassinate me?"

"A woman whom I don't know, but who is called Milady."

"But if you don't know this woman, how do you know hername?"

"My comrade knows her, and called her so. It was with himshe agreed, and not with me; he even has in his pocket aletter from that person, who attaches great importance toyou, as I have heard him say."

"But how did you become concerned in this villainousaffair?"

"He proposed to me to undertake it with him, and I agreed."

"And how much did she give you for this fine enterprise?"

"A hundred louis."

"Well, come!" said the young man, laughing, "she thinks I amworth something. A hundred louis? Well, that was atemptation for two wretches like you. I understand why youaccepted it, and I grant you my pardon; but upon onecondition."

"What is that?" said the soldier, uneasy at perceiving thatall was not over.

"That you will go and fetch me the letter your comrade hasin his pocket."

"But," cried the bandit, "that is only another way ofkilling me. How can I go and fetch that letter under thefire of the bastion?"

"You must nevertheless make up your mind to go and get it,or I swear you shall die by my hand."

"Pardon, monsieur; pity! In the name of that young lady youlove, and whom you perhaps believe dead but who is not!"cried the bandit, throwing himself upon his knees andleaning upon his hand - for he began to lose his strengthwith his blood.

"And how do you know there is a young woman whom I love, andthat I believed that woman dead?" asked D'Artagnan.

"By that letter which my comrade has in his pocket."

"You see, then," said D'Artagnan, "that I must have thatletter. So no more delay, no more hesitation; or elsewhatever may be my repugnance to soiling my sword a secondtime with the blood of a wretch like you, I swear by myfaith as an honest man - " and at these words D'Artagnan madeso fierce a gesture that the wounded man sprang up.

"Stop, stop!" cried he, regaining strength by force ofterror. "I will go - I will go!"

D'Artagnan took the soldier's arquebus, made him go onbefore him, and urged him toward his companion by prickinghim behind with his sword.

It was a frightful thing to see this wretch, leaving a longtrack of blood on the ground he passed over, pale withapproaching death, trying to drag himself along withoutbeing seen to the body of his accomplice, which lay twentypaces from him.

Terror was so strongly painted on his face, covered with acold sweat, that D'Artagnan took pity on him, and castingupon him a look of contempt, "Stop," said he, "I will showyou the difference between a man of courage and such acoward as you. Stay where you are; I will go myself."

And with a light step, an eye on the watch, observing themovements of the enemy and taking advantage of the accidentsof the ground, D'Artagnan succeeded in reaching the secondsoldier.

There were two means of gaining his object - to search him onthe spot, or to carry him away, making a buckler of hisbody, and search him in the trench.

D'Artagnan preferred the second means, and lifted theassassin onto his shoulders at the moment the enemy fired.

A slight shock, the dull noise of three balls whichpenetrated the flesh, a last cry, a convulsion of agony,proved to D'Artagnan that the would-be assassin had savedhis life.

D'Artagnan regained the trench, and threw the corpse besidethe wounded man, who was as pale as death.

Then he began to search. A leather pocketbook, a purse, inwhich was evidently a part of the sum which the bandit hadreceived, with a dice box and dice, completed thepossessions of the dead man.

He left the box and dice where they fell, threw the purse tothe wounded man, and eagerly opened the pocketbook.

Among some unimportant papers he found the following letter,that which he had sought at the risk of his life:

"Since you have lost sight of that woman and she is now insafety in the convent, which you should never have allowedher to reach, try, at least, not to miss the man. If youdo, you know that my hand stretches far, and that you shallpay very dearly for the hundred louis you have from me."

No signature. Nevertheless it was plain the letter camefrom Milady. He consequently kept it as a piece ofevidence, and being in safety behind the angle of thetrench, he began to interrogate the wounded man. Heconfessed that he had undertaken with his comrade - the samewho was killed - to carry off a young woman who was to leaveParis by the Barriere de La Villette; but having stopped todrink at a cabaret, they had missed the carriage by tenminutes.

"But what were you to do with that woman?" asked D'Artagnan,with anguish.

"We were to have conveyed her to a hotel in the PlaceRoyale," said the wounded man.

"Yes, yes!" murmured D'Artagnan; "that's the place - Milady'sown residence!"

Then the young man tremblingly comprehended what a terriblethirst for vengeance urged this woman on to destroy him, aswell as all who loved him, and how well she must beacquainted with the affairs of the court, since she haddiscovered all. There could be no doubt she owed thisinformation to the cardinal.

But amid all this he perceived, with a feeling of real joy,that the queen must have discovered the prison in which poorMme. Bonacieux was explaining her devotion, and that she hadfreed her from that prison; and the letter he had receivedfrom the young woman, and her passage along the road ofChaillot like an apparition, were now explained.

Then also, as Athos had predicted, it became possible tofind Mme. Bonacieux, and a convent was not impregnable.

This idea completely restored clemency to his heart. Heturned toward the wounded man, who had watched with intenseanxiety all the various expressions of his countenance, andholding out his arm to him, said, "Come, I will not abandonyou thus. Lean upon me, and let us return to the camp."

"Yes," said the man, who could scarcely believe in suchmagnanimity, "but is it not to have me hanged?"

"You have my word," said he; "for the second time I give youyour life."

The wounded man sank upon his knees, to again kiss the feetof his preserver; but D'Artagnan, who had no longer a motivefor staying so near the enemy, abridged the testimonials ofhis gratitude.

The Guardsman who had returned at the first dischargeannounced the death of his four companions. They weretherefore much astonished and delighted in the regiment whenthey saw the young man come back safe and sound.

D'Artagnan explained the sword wound of his companion by asortie which he improvised. He described the death of theother soldier, and the perils they had encountered. Thisrecital was for him the occasion of veritable triumph. Thewhole army talked of this expedition for a day, and Monsieurpaid him his compliments upon it. Besides this, as everygreat action bears its recompense with it, the brave exploitof D'Artagnan resulted in the restoration of the tranquilityhe had lost. In fact, D'Artagnan believed that he might betranquil, as one of his two enemies was killed and the otherdevoted to his interests.

This tranquillity proved one thing - that D'Artagnan did notyet know Milady.