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Rh L0T7ISE DE LA VALLTERB. 13 cleaning np or tidying day at the Bastile; the cannons were furbished up, the staircases scraped and cleaned; and the i'ailers seemed to be carefully engaged in polishing even the
 * eys themselves. As for the soldiers belonging to the gar-

rison, they were walking about in the different courtyards, under the pretense that they were clean enough. The governor, Baisemeaux, received D'Artagnan with more than ordinary politeness, but he behaved toward him with so marked a reserve of manner that all D'Artagnan's tact and cleverness could not get a syllable out of him. The more he kept himself within bounds, the more D'Artagnan's suspicion increased. The latter even fancied he remarked that the governor was acting under the influence of a recent recommendation. ^Saisemeaux had not been at the Palais Eoyal with D'Artagnan the same cold and impenetrable man which the latter now found in the Baisemeaux of the Bastile. When D'Artagnan wished to make him talk about the urgent money matters which had brought Baisemeaux in search of D'Artagnan, and had rendered him expansive, notwithstanding what had passed on that evening, Baise- meaux pretended that he had some orders to give in the prison, and left D'Artagnan so long alone, waiting for him, that our musketeer, feeling sure that he should not get an- other syllable out of him, left the Bastile without waiting until Baisemeaux returned from his inspection. But D'Ar- tagnan's suspicions were aroused, and when once that was the case, D'Artagnan could not sleep or remain quiet for a moment. He was among men what the cat is among quad- rupeds, the emblem of restlessness and impatience, at the same moment. A restless cat no more remains in the same place than a silk thread does which is wafted idly to and fro with every breath of air. A cat on the watch is as motionless as death stationed at its place of observation, and neither hunger nor thirst can possibly draw it away from its meditation. D'Artagnan, who was burning with impatience, suddenly threw aside the feeling, like a cloak which he felt too heavy on his shoulders, and said to him- self that that which they were concealing from him was the very thing it was important he should know; and, conse- quently, he reasoned that Baisemeaux would not fail to put Aramis on his guard, if Aramis had given him any particu- lar recommendation, and which was, in fact, the very thing that did happen. Baisemeaux had hardly had time to return from the donjon than D'Artagnan placed himself in ambuscade close