Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas (books for 6 year olds to read themselves TXT) đ
![](/uploads/posts/books/2/7/0/8/7/twenty-years-after.jpg)
- Author: Alexandre Dumas
- Performer: 0192838431
Book online «Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas (books for 6 year olds to read themselves TXT) đ». Author Alexandre Dumas
âBut Monsieur de Gondy is to be made a cardinal; they are soliciting the hat for him.â
âAnd are there no cardinals that can fight? Come now, recall the four cardinals that at the head of armies have equalled Monsieur de Guebriant and Monsieur de Gassion.â
âBut a humpbacked general!
âUnder the cuirass the hump will not be seen. Besides, remember that Alexander was lame and Hannibal had but one eye.â
âDo you see any great advantage in adhering to this party?â asked DâArtagnan.
âI foresee in it the aid of powerful princes.â
âWith the enmity of the government.â
âCounteracted by parliament and insurrections.â
âThat may be done if they can separate the king from his mother.â
âThat may be done,â said Aramis.
âNever!â cried DâArtagnan. âYou, Aramis, know Anne of Austria better than I do. Do you think she will ever forget that her son is her safeguard, her shield, the pledge for her dignity, for her fortune and her life? Should she forsake Mazarin she must join her son and go over to the princesâ side; but you know better than I do that there are certain reasons why she can never abandon Mazarin.â
âPerhaps you are right,â said Aramis, thoughtfully; âtherefore I shall not pledge myself.â
âTo them or to us, do you mean, Aramis?â
âTo no one. I am a priest,â resumed Aramis. âWhat have I to do with politics? I am not obliged to read any breviary. I have a jolly little circle of witty abbes and pretty women; everything goes on smoothly, so certainly, dear friend, I shall not meddle in politics.â
âWell, listen, my dear Aramis,â said DâArtagnan; âyour philosophy convinces me, on my honor. I donât know what devil of an insect stung me and made me ambitious. I have a post by which I live; at the death of Monsieur de Treville, who is old, I may be a captain, which is a very snug berth for a once penniless Gascon. Instead of running after adventures I shall accept an invitation from Porthos; I shall go and shoot on his estate. You know he has estates â Porthos?â
âI should think so, indeed. Ten leagues of wood, of marsh land and valleys; he is lord of the hill and the plain and is now carrying on a suit for his feudal rights against the Bishop of Noyon!â
âGood,â said DâArtagnan to himself. âThatâs what I wanted to know. Porthos is in Picardy.â
Then aloud:
âAnd he has taken his ancient name of Vallon?â
âTo which he adds that of Bracieux, an estate which has been a barony, by my troth.â
âSo that Porthos will be a baron.â
âI donât doubt it. The âBaroness Porthosâ will sound particularly charming.â
And the two friends began to laugh.
âSo,â DâArtagnan resumed, âyou will not become a partisan of Mazarinâs?â
âNor you of the Prince de Conde?â
âNo, let us belong to no party, but remain friends; let us be neither Cardinalists nor Frondists.â
âAdieu, then.â And DâArtagnan poured out a glass of wine.
âTo old times,â he said.
âYes,â returned Aramis. âUnhappily, those times are past.â
âNonsense! They will return,â said DâArtagnan. âAt all events, if you want me, remember the Rue Tiquetonne, Hotel de la Chevrette.â
âAnd I shall be at the convent of Jesuits; from six in the morning to eight at night come by the door. From eight in the evening until six in the morning come in by the window.â
âAdieu, dear friend.â
âOh, I canât let you go so! I will go with you.â And he took his sword and cloak.
âHe wants to be sure that I go away,â said DâArtagnan to himself.
Aramis whistled for Bazin, but Bazin was asleep in the antechamber, and Aramis was obliged to shake him by the ear to awake him.
Bazin stretched his arms, rubbed his eyes, and tried to go to sleep again.
âCome, come, sleepy head; quick, the ladder!â
âBut,â said Bazin, yawning portentously, âthe ladder is still at the window.â
âThe other one, the gardenerâs. Didnât you see that Monsieur dâArtagnan mounted with difficulty? It will be even more difficult to descend.â
DâArtagnan was about to assure Aramis that he could descend easily, when an idea came into his head which silenced him.
Bazin uttered a profound sigh and went out to look for the ladder. Presently a good, solid, wooden ladder was placed against the window.
âNow then,â said DâArtagnan, âthis is something like; this is a means of communication. A woman could go up a ladder like that.â
Aramisâs searching look seemed to seek his friendâs thought even at the bottom of his heart, but DâArtagnan sustained the inquisition with an air of admirable simplicity. Besides, at that moment he put his foot on the first step of the ladder and began his descent. In a moment he was on the ground. Bazin remained at the window.
âStay there,â said Aramis; âI shall return immediately.â
The two friends went toward the shed. At their approach Planchet came out leading the two horses.
âThat is good to see,â said Aramis. âThere is a servant active and vigilant, not like that lazy fellow Bazin, who is no longer good for anything since he became connected with the church. Follow us, Planchet; we shall continue our conversation to the end of the village.â
They traversed the width of the village, talking of indifferent things, then as they reached the last houses:
âGo, then, dear friend,â said Aramis, âfollow your own career. Fortune lavishes her smiles upon you; do not let her flee from your embrace. As for me, I remain in my humility and indolence. Adieu!â
âThus âtis quite decided,â said DâArtagnan, âthat what I have to offer to you does not tempt you?â
âOn the contrary, it would tempt me were I any other man,â rejoined Aramis; âbut I repeat, I am made up of contradictions. What I hate to-day I adore to-morrow, and vice versa. You see that I cannot, like you, for instance, settle on any fixed plan.â
âThou liest, subtile one,â said DâArtagnan to himself. âThou alone, on the contrary, knowest how to choose thy object and to gain it stealthily.â
The friends embraced. They descended into the plain by the ladder. Planchet met them hard by the shed. DâArtagnan jumped into the saddle, then the old companions in arms again shook hands. DâArtagnan and Planchet spurred their steeds and took the road to Paris.
But after he had gone about two hundred steps DâArtagnan stopped short, alighted, threw the bridle of his horse over the arm of Planchet and took the pistols from his saddle-bow to fasten them to his girdle.
âWhatâs the matter?â asked Planchet.
âThis is the matter: be he ever so cunning he shall never say I was his dupe. Stand here, donât stir, turn your back to the road and wait for me.â
Having thus spoken, DâArtagnan cleared the ditch by the roadside and crossed the plain so as to wind around the village. He had observed between the house that Madame de Longueville inhabited and the convent of the Jesuits, an open space surrounded by a hedge.
The moon had now risen and he could see well enough to retrace his road.
He reached the hedge and hid himself behind it; in passing by the house where the scene which we have related took place, he remarked that the window was again lighted up and he was convinced that Aramis had not yet returned to his own apartment and that when he did it would not be alone.
In truth, in a few minutes he heard steps approaching and low whispers.
Close to the hedge the steps stopped.
DâArtagnan knelt down near the thickest part of the hedge.
Two men, to the astonishment of DâArtagnan, appeared shortly; soon, however, his surprise vanished, for he heard the murmurs of a soft, harmonious voice; one of these two men was a woman disguised as a cavalier.
âCalm yourself, dear Rene,â said the soft voice, âthe same thing will never happen again. I have discovered a sort of subterranean passage which runs beneath the street and we shall only have to raise one of the marble slabs before the door to open you an entrance and an outlet.â
âOh!â answered another voice, which DâArtagnan instantly recognized as that of Aramis. âI swear to you, princess, that if your reputation did not depend on precautions and if my life alone were jeopardized â- â
âYes, yes! I know you are as brave and venturesome as any man in the world, but you do not belong to me alone; you belong to all our party. Be prudent! sensible!â
âI always obey, madame, when I am commanded by so gentle a voice.â
He kissed her hand tenderly.
âAh!â exclaimed the cavalier with a soft voice.
âWhatâs the matter?â asked Aramis.
âDo you not see that the wind has blown off my hat?â
Aramis rushed after the fugitive hat. DâArtagnan took advantage of the circumstance to find a place in the hedge not so thick, where his glance could penetrate to the supposed cavalier. At that instant, the moon, inquisitive, perhaps, like DâArtagnan, came from behind a cloud and by her light DâArtagnan recognized the large blue eyes, the golden hair and the classic head of the Duchess de Longueville.
Aramis returned, laughing, one hat on his head and the other in his hand; and he and his companion resumed their walk toward the convent.
âGood!â said DâArtagnan, rising and brushing his knees; ânow I have thee â thou art a Frondeur and the lover of Madame de Longueville.â
10Monsieur Porthos du Vallon de Bracieux de Pierrefonds.
Thanks to what Aramis had told him, DâArtagnan, who knew already that Porthos called himself Du Vallon, was now aware that he styled himself, from his estate, De Bracieux; and that he was, on account of this estate, engaged in a lawsuit with the Bishop of Noyon. It was, then, in the neighborhood of Noyon that he must seek that estate. His itinerary was promptly determined: he would go to Dammartin, from which place two roads diverge, one toward Soissons, the other toward Compiegne; there he would inquire concerning the Bracieux estate and go to the right or to the left according to the information obtained.
Planchet, who was still a little concerned for his safety after his recent escapade, declared that he would follow DâArtagnan even to the end of the world, either by the road to the right or by that to the left; only he begged his former master to set out in the evening, for greater security to himself. DâArtagnan suggested that he should send word to his wife, so that she might not be anxious about him, but Planchet replied with much sagacity that he was very sure his wife would not die of anxiety through not knowing where he was, while he, Planchet, remembering her incontinence of tongue, would die of anxiety if she did know.
This reasoning seemed to DâArtagnan so satisfactory that he no further insisted; and about eight oâclock in the evening, the time when the vapors of night begin to thicken in the streets, he left the Hotel de la Chevrette, and followed by Planchet set forth from the capital by way of the Saint Denis gate.
At midnight the two travelers were at Dammartin, but it was then too late to make inquiries â the host of the Cygne de la Croix had gone to bed.
The next morning DâArtagnan summoned the host, one of those sly Normans who say neither yes nor no and fear to commit themselves by giving a direct answer. DâArtagnan, however, gathered from his equivocal replies that the road to the right was the one he ought to take, and on that uncertain information he resumed his journey. At nine in the morning he reached Nanteuil and stopped
Comments (0)