onding
qualities. D'Artagnan, thanks to his ever active imagination, was afraid
of a shadow, and ashamed of being afraid, he marched straight up to that
shadow, and then became extravagant in his bravery, if the danger proved
to be real. Thus everything in him was emotion, and therefore enjoyment.
He loved the society of others, but never became tired of his own; and
more than once, if he could have been heard when he was alone, he might
have been seen laughing at the jokes he related to himself or the tricks
his imagination created just five minutes before _ennui_ might have been
looked for. D'Artagnan was not perhaps so gay this time as he would have
been with the prospect of finding some good friends at Calais, instead
of joining the ten scamps there; melancholy, however, did not visit him
more than once a day, and it was about five visits that he received from
that somber deity before he got sight of the sea at Boulogne, and then
these visits were indeed but short. But when once D'Artagnan found
himself near the field of action, all other feelings but that of
confidence disappeared never to return. From Boulogne he followed the
coast to Calais. Calais was the place of general rendezvous, and at
Calais he had named to each of his recruits the hostelry of "Le Grande
Monarque," where living was not extravagant, where sailors messed, and
where men of the sword, with sheath of leather, be it understood, found
lodging, table, food, and all the comforts of life, for thirty sous
per diem. D'Artagnan proposed to himself to take them by surprise
_in flagrante delicto_ of wandering life, and to judge by the first
appearance if he could count on them as trusty companions.

He arrived at Calais at half past four in the afternoon.

Chapter XXII. D'Artagnan travels for the House of Planchet and Company.

The hostelry of "Le Grand Monarque" was situated in a little street
parallel to the port without looking out upon the port itself. Some
lanes cut--as steps cut the two parallels of the ladder--the two great
straight lines of the port and the street. By these lanes passengers
came suddenly from the port into the street, or from the street on to
the port. D'Artagnan, arrived at the port, took one of these lanes, and
came out in front of the hostelry of "Le Grand Monarque." The moment
was well chosen and might remind D'Artagnan of his start in life at
the hostelry of the "Franc-Meunier" at Meung. Some sailors who had been
playi