Two others were more frank: they confessed honestly that
they had served on board a vessel as soldiers on punishment,
and did not blush for it. D'Artagnan found himself, then,
the leader of ten men of war and four sailors, having at
once a land army and a sea force, which would have earned
the pride of Planchet to its height, if Planchet had known
the details.

Nothing was now left but arranging the general orders, and
D'Artagnan gave them with precision. He enjoined his men to
be ready to set out for the Hague, some following the coast
which leads to Breskens, others the road to Antwerp. The
rendezvous was given, by calculating each day's march, a
fortnight from that time upon the chief place at the Hague.
D'Artagnan recommended his men to go in couples, as they
liked best, from sympathy. He himself selected from among
those with the least disreputable look, two guards whom he
had formerly known, and whose only faults were being
drunkards and gamblers. These men had not entirely lost all
ideas of civilization, and under proper garments their
hearts would beat again. D'Artagnan, not to create any
jealousy with the others, made the rest go forward. He kept
his two selected ones, clothed them from his own wardrobe,
and set out with them.

It was to these two, whom he seemed to honor with an
absolute confidence, that D'Artagnan imparted a false
secret, destined to secure the success of the expedition. He
confessed to them that the object was not to learn to what
extent the French merchants were injured by English