they would sleep in the common chamber, each on
a mattress which might be thrown upon the ground. The host insisted; but
the travelers were firm, and he was obliged to do as they wished.

They had just prepared their beds and barricaded their door within, when
someone knocked at the yard shutter; they demanded who was there, and
recognizing the voices of their lackeys, opened the shutter. It was
indeed Planchet and Grimaud.

"Grimaud can take care of the horses," said Planchet. "If you are
willing, gentlemen, I will sleep across your doorway, and you will then
be certain that nobody can reach you."

"And on what will you sleep?" said d'Artagnan.

"Here is my bed," replied Planchet, producing a bundle of straw.

"Come, then," said d'Artagnan, "you are right. Mine host's face does not
please me at all; it is too gracious."

"Nor me either," said Athos.

Planchet mounted by the window and installed himself across the doorway,
while Grimaud went and shut himself up in the stable, undertaking that
by five o'clock in the morning he and the four horses should be ready.

The night was quiet enough. Toward two o'clock in the morning somebody
endeavored to open the door; but as Planchet awoke in an instant and
cried, "Who goes there?" somebody replied that he was mistaken, and went
away.

At four o'clock in the morning they heard a terrible riot in the
stables. Grimaud had tried to waken the stable boys, and the stable boys
had beaten him. When they opened the window, they saw the poor lad lying
senseless, with his head split by a blow with a pitchfork.

Planchet went down into the yard, and wished to saddle the horses; but
the horses were all used up. Mousqueton's horse which had traveled for
five or six hours without a rider the day before, might have been able
to pursue the journey; but by an inconceivable error the veterinary
surgeon, who had been sent for, as it appeared, to bleed one of the
host's horses, had bled Mousqueton's.

This began to be annoying. All these successive accidents were perhaps
the result of chance; but they might be the fruits of a plot. Athos and
d'Artagnan went out, while Planchet was sent to inquire if there were
not three horses for sale in the neighborhood. At the door stood two
horses, fresh, strong, and fully equipped. These would just have suited
them. He asked where their masters were, and was informed that they had
passed the night in the inn, and were then settling their bill wi