het,
remembering her incontinence of tongue, would die of anxiety if she did
know.

This reasoning seemed to D'Artagnan so satisfactory that he no further
insisted; and about eight o'clock in the evening, the time when the
vapors of night begin to thicken in the streets, he left the Hotel de la
Chevrette, and followed by Planchet set forth from the capital by way of
the Saint Denis gate.

At midnight the two travelers were at Dammartin, but it was then too
late to make inquiries--the host of the Cygne de la Croix had gone to
bed.

The next morning D'Artagnan summoned the host, one of those sly Normans
who say neither yes nor no and fear to commit themselves by giving a
direct answer. D'Artagnan, however, gathered from his equivocal replies
that the road to the right was the one he ought to take, and on that
uncertain information he resumed his journey. At nine in the morning
he reached Nanteuil and stopped for breakfast. His host here was a good
fellow from Picardy, who gave him all the information he needed. The
Bracieux estate was a few leagues from Villars-Cotterets.

D'Artagnan was acquainted with Villars-Cotterets, having gone thither
with the court on several occasions; for at that time Villars-Cotterets
was a royal residence. He therefore shaped his course toward that
place and dismounted at the Dauphin d'Or. There he ascertained that the
Bracieux estate was four leagues distant, but that Porthos was not at
Bracieux. Porthos had, in fact, been involved in a dispute with the
Bishop of Noyon in regard to the Pierrefonds property, which adjoined
his own, and weary at length of a legal controversy which was beyond his
comprehension, he put an end to it by purchasing Pierrefonds and added
that name to his others. He now called himself Du Vallon de Bracieux de
Pierrefonds, and resided on his new estate.

The travelers were therefore obliged to stay at the hotel until the next
day; the horses had done ten leagues that day and needed rest. It is
true they might have taken others, but there was a great forest to pass
through and Planchet, as we have seen, had no liking for forests after
dark.

There was another thing that Planchet had no liking for and that was
starting on a journey with a hungry stomach. Accordingly, D'Artagnan, on
awaking, found his breakfast waiting for him. It need not be said
that Planchet in resuming his former functions resumed also his former
humility and was not ashamed to make his breakf