during some moments the clouds appeared black to him, the
earth slippery and full of pits as that of cemeteries.

"Whither am I going?" said he to himself. "What am I going
to do! Alone, quite alone -- without family, without
friends! Bah!" cried he all at once. And he clapped spurs to
his horse, who, having found nothing melancholy in the heavy
oats of Pierrefonds profited by this permission to show his
gayety in a gallop which absorbed two leagues. "To Paris!"
said D'Artagnan to himself. And on the morrow he alighted in
Paris. He had devoted six days to this journey.




CHAPTER 19

What D'Artagnan went to Paris for



The lieutenant dismounted before a shop in the Rue des
Lombards, at the sign of the Pilon d'Or. A man of good
appearance, wearing a white apron, and stroking his gray
mustache with a large hand, uttered a cry of joy on
perceiving the pied horse. "Monsieur le chevalier," said he,
"ah, is that you?"

"Bon jour, Planchet," replied D'Artagnan, stooping to enter
the shop.