Page:The three musketeers (IA threemusketeers1800duma).pdf/139

 Then, grasping the windowsill, he dropped from the first story, which, fortunately, was not high, without suffering even a scratch. He then went immediately knocked at the door, muttering:

"I am going in my turn to be caught in the mouse-trap; but woe betide the cats who shall deal with such a mouse!"

Scarcely had the knocker sounded beneath the young man's hand ere the tumult ceased, and footsteps approached. The door was opened, and D'Artagnan, armed with his naked sword, sprang into the apartment of M. Bonancieux, the door of which, doubtless moved by a spring, shut of itself behind him.

Then might those who yet inhabited the unlucky house of M. Bonancieux, and the nearest neighbors, hear fierce outcries, stampings, and the clashing of swords and the continual crash of breaking furniture. After a moment more, those who had looked from their windows to learn the cause of this surprising noise, might see the door open, and four men clothed in black not merely make their exit, but fly, like frightened crows, leaving on the ground at at the corners of the house, their feathers and wings-that is to say, the rags of their coats and the scraps of their cloaks.

D'Artagnan had come off victorious, without much difficulty, it must be confessed; for only one of the officers was armed, and he had defended himself only for appearance' sake. It is quite true that the other three had endeavored to knock down the young man with chairs, stools, and crockery, but a scratch or two apiece from the Gascon's sword had scared them. Ten minutes sufficed for their defeat, and D'Artagnan remained master of the field of battle.

The neighbors, who had opened their windows with the indifference habitual to the inhabitants of Paris at that season of perpetual disturbances and riots, closed them again when they saw the four men escape; their instinct told them all was over for the time. Besides, it was getting late, and then, as well as now, people