"Hush!" said D'Artagnan; "the some one is coming."

The sound of a light step was heard in the vestibule. The hinges of the
door creaked and a man appeared in the dress of a cavalier, wrapped in
a brown cloak, with a lantern in one hand and a large beaver hat pulled
down over his eyes.

Porthos effaced himself against the wall, but he could not render
himself invisible; and the man in the cloak said to him, giving him his
lantern:

"Light the lamp which hangs from the ceiling."

Then addressing D'Artagnan:

"You know the watchword?" he said.

"Ja!" replied the Gascon, determined to confine himself to this specimen
of the German tongue.

"Tedesco!" answered the cavalier; "va bene."

And advancing toward the door opposite to that by which he came in, he
opened it and disappeared behind it, shutting it as he went.

"Now," asked Porthos, "what are we to do?"

"Now we shall make use of your shoulder, friend Porthos, if this door
proves to be locked. Everything in its proper time, and all comes right
to those who know how to wait patiently. But first barricade the first
door well; then we will follow yonder cavalier."

The two friends set to work and crowded the space before the door
with all the furniture in the room, as not only to make the passage
impassable, but so to block the door that by no means could it open
inward.

"There!" said D'Artagnan, "we can't be overtaken. Come! forward!"

85. The Oubliettes of Cardinal Mazarin.

At first, on arriving at the door through which Mazarin had passed,
D'Artagnan tried in vain to open it, but on the powerful shoulder of
Porthos being applied to one of the panels, which gave way, D'Artagnan
introduced the point of his sword between the bolt and the staple of the
lock. The bolt gave way and the door opened.

"As I told you, everything can be attained, Porthos, women and doors, by
proceeding with gentleness."

"You're a great moralist, and that's the fact," said Porthos.

They entered; behind a glass window, by the light of the cardinal's
lantern, which had been placed on the floor in the midst of the gallery,
they saw the orange and pomegranate trees of the Castle of Rueil, in
long lines, forming one great alley and two smaller side alleys.

"No cardinal!" said D'Artagnan, "but only his lantern; where the devil,
then, is he?"

Exploring, however, one of the side wings of the gallery, after making a
sign to Porthos to explore the other, he saw, a