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 case, 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, with a good lieutenant--_Mordioux!_ what things
patience and calculation are! Was I not going to embark with forty men,
and I have now reduced them to twenty for an equal success? Ten thousand
livres saved at one stroke, and more safety; that is well! Now, then,
let us see; we have nothing to do but to find this lieutenant--let him
be found, then; and after--That is not so easy; he must be brave and
good, a second myself. Yes, but a lieutenant must have my secret, and as
that secret is worth a million, and I shall only pay my man a thousand
livres, fifteen hundred at the most, my man will sell the secret to
Monk. _Mordioux!_ no lieutenant. Besides, this man, were he as mute as
a disciple of Pythagoras,--this man would be sure to have in the troop
some favorite soldier, whom he would make his sergeant; the sergeant
would penetrate the secret of the lieutenant, in case the latter should
be honest and unwilling to sell it. Then the sergeant, less honest and
less ambitious, will give up the whole for fifty thousand livres. Come,
come! that is impossible. The lieutenant is impossible. But then I must
have no fractions; I can