The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas (ereader for android txt) đ
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âHe has not recovered the blow?â said he to Athos.
âHe is struck to death.â
âOh! your fears exaggerate, I hope. Raoul is of a tempered nature. Around all hearts as noble as his, there is a second envelope that forms a cuirass. The first bleeds, the second resists.â
âNo,â replied Athos, âRaoul will die of it.â
âMordioux!â said DâArtagnan, in a melancholy tone. And he did not add a word to this exclamation. Then, a minute after, âWhy do you let him go?â
âBecause he insists on going.â
âAnd why do you not go with him?â
âBecause I could not bear to see him die.â
DâArtagnan looked his friend earnestly in the face. âYou know one thing,â continued the comte, leaning upon the arm of the captain; âyou know that in the course of my life I have been afraid of but few things. Well! I have an incessant gnawing, insurmountable fear that an hour will come in which I shall hold the dead body of that boy in my arms.â
âOh!â murmured DâArtagnan; âoh!â
âHe will die, I know, I have a perfect conviction of that; but I would not see him die.â
âHow is this, Athos? you come and place yourself in the presence of the bravest man, you say you have ever seen, of your own DâArtagnan, of that man without an equal, as you formerly called him, and you come and tell him, with your arms folded, that you are afraid of witnessing the death of your son, you who have seen all that can be seen in this world! Why have you this fear, Athos? Man upon this earth must expect everything, and ought to face everything.â
âListen to me, my friend. After having worn myself out upon this earth of which you speak, I have preserved but two religions: that of life, friendship, my duty as a fatherâthat of eternity, love, and respect for God. Now, I have within me the revelation that if God should decree that my friend or my son should render up his last sigh in my presenceâoh! no, I cannot even tell you, DâArtagnan!â
âSpeak, speak, tell me!â
âI am strong against everything, except against the death of those I love. For that only there is no remedy. He who dies, gains; he who sees others die, loses. No, this is itâto know that I should no more meet on earth him whom I now behold with joy; to know that there would nowhere be a DâArtagnan any more, nowhere again be a Raoul, oh! I am old, look you, I have no longer courage; I pray God to spare me in my weakness; but if he struck me so plainly and in that fashion, I should curse him. A Christian gentleman ought not to curse his God, DâArtagnan; it is enough to once have cursed a king!â
âHumph!â sighed DâArtagnan, a little confused by this violent tempest of grief.
âLet me speak to him, Athos. Who knows?â
âTry, if you please, but I am convinced you will not succeed.â
âI will not attempt to console him. I will serve him.â
âYou will?â
âDoubtless, I will. Do you think this would be the first time a woman had repented of an infidelity? I will go to him, I tell you.â
Athos shook his head, and continued his walk alone, DâArtagnan, cutting across the brambles, rejoined Raoul and held out his hand to him. âWell, Raoul! You have something to say to me?â
âI have a kindness to ask of you,â replied Bragelonne.
âAsk it, then.â
âYou will some day return to France?â
âI hope so.â
âOught I to write to Mademoiselle de la Valliere?â
âNo, you must not.â
âBut I have many things to say to her.â
âGo and say them to her, then.â
âNever!â
âPray, what virtue do you attribute to a letter, which your speech might not possess?â
âPerhaps you are right.â
âShe loves the king,â said DâArtagnan, bluntly; âand she is an honest girl.â Raoul started. âAnd you, you whom she abandons, she, perhaps, loves better than she does the king, but after another fashion.â
âDâArtagnan, do you believe she loves the king?â
âTo idolatry. Her heart is inaccessible to any other feeling. You might continue to live near her, and would be her best friend.â
âAh!â exclaimed Raoul, with a passionate burst of repugnance at such a hideous hope.
âWill you do so?â
âIt would be base.â
âThat is a very absurd word, which would lead me to think slightly of your understanding. Please to understand, Raoul, that it is never base to do that which is imposed upon us by a superior force. If your heart says to you, âGo there, or die,â why go, Raoul. Was she base or brave, she whom you loved, in preferring the king to you, the king whom her heart commanded her imperiously to prefer to you? No, she was the bravest of women. Do, then, as she has done. Oblige yourself. Do you know one thing of which I am sure, Raoul?â
âWhat is that?â
âWhy, that by seeing her closely with the eyes of a jealous manââ
âWell?â
âWell! you would cease to love her.â
âThen I am decided, my dear DâArtagnan.â
âTo set off to see her again?â
âNo; to set off that I may never see her again. I wish to love her forever.â
âHa! I must confess,â replied the musketeer, âthat is a conclusion which I was far from expecting.â
âThis is what I wish, my friend. You will see her again, and you will give her a letter which, if you think proper, will explain to her, as to yourself, what is passing in my heart. Read it; I drew it up last night. Something told me I should see you to-day.â He held the letter out, and DâArtagnan read:
âMADEMOISELLE,âYou are not wrong in my eyes in not loving me. You have only been guilty of one fault towards me, that of having left me to believe you loved me. This error will cost me my life. I pardon you, but I cannot pardon myself. It is said that happy lovers are deaf to the sorrows of rejected lovers. It will not be so with you, who did not love me, save with anxiety. I am sure that if I had persisted in endeavoring to change that friendship into love, you would have yielded out of a fear of bringing about my death, or lessening the esteem I had for you. It is much more delightful to me to die, knowing that you are free and satisfied. How much, then, will you love me, when you will no longer fear either my presence or reproaches? You will love me, because, however charming a new love may appear to you, God has not made me in anything inferior to him you have chosen, and because my devotedness, my sacrifice, and my painful end will assure me, in your eyes, a certain superiority over him. I have allowed to escape, in the candid credulity of my heart, the treasure I possessed. Many people tell me that you loved me enough to lead me to hope you would have loved me much. That idea takes from my mind all bitterness, and leads me only to blame myself. You will accept this last farewell, and you will bless me for having taken refuge in the inviolable asylum where hatred is extinguished, and where all love endures forever. Adieu, mademoiselle. If your happiness could be purchased by the last drop of my blood, I would shed that drop. I willingly make the sacrifice of it to my misery!
âRAOUL, VICOTME DE BRAGELONNE.â
âThe letter reads very well,â said the captain. âI have only one fault to find with it.â
âTell me what that is!â said Raoul.
âWhy, it is that it tells everything, except the thing which exhales, like a mortal poison from your eyes and from your heart; except the senseless love which still consumes you.â Raoul grew paler, but remained silent.
âWhy did you not write simply these words:
ââMADEMOISELLE,âInstead of cursing you, I love you and I die.ââ
âThat is true,â exclaimed Raoul, with a sinister kind of joy.
And tearing the letter he had just taken back, he wrote the following words upon a leaf of his tablets:
âTo procure the happiness of once more telling you I love you, I commit the baseness of writing to you; and to punish myself for that baseness, I die.â And he signed it.
âYou will give her these tablets, captain, will you not?â
âWhen?â asked the latter.
âOn the day,â said Bragelonne, pointing to the last sentence, âon the day when you can place a date under these words.â And he sprang away quickly to join Athos, who was returning with slow steps.
As they re-entered the fort, the sea rose with that rapid, gusty vehemence which characterizes the Mediterranean; the ill-humor of the element became a tempest. Something shapeless, and tossed about violently by the waves, appeared just off the coast.
âWhat is that?â said Athos,ââa wrecked boat?â
âNo, it is not a boat,â said DâArtagnan.
âPardon me,â said Raoul, âthere is a bark gaining the port rapidly.â
âYes, there is a bark in the creek, which is prudently seeking shelter here; but that which Athos points to in the sand is not a boat at allâit has run aground.â
âYes, yes, I see it.â
âIt is the carriage, which I threw into the sea after landing the prisoner.â
âWell!â said Athos, âif you take my advice, DâArtagnan, you will burn that carriage, in order that no vestige of it may remain, without which the fishermen of Antibes, who have believed they had to do with the devil, will endeavor to prove that your prisoner was but a man.â
âYour advice is good, Athos, and I will this night have it carried out, or rather, I will carry it out myself; but let us go in, for the rain falls heavily, and the lightning is terrific.â
As they were passing over the ramparts to a gallery of which DâArtagnan had the key, they saw M. de Saint-Mars directing his steps towards the chamber inhabited by the prisoner. Upon a sign from DâArtagnan, they concealed themselves in an angle of the staircase.
âWhat is it?â said Athos.
âYou will see. Look. The prisoner is returning from chapel.â
And they saw, by the red flashes of lightning against the violet fog which the wind stamped upon the bank-ward sky, they saw pass gravely, at six paces behind the governor, a man clothed in black and masked by a vizor of polished steel, soldered to a helmet of the same nature, which altogether enveloped the whole of his head. The fire of the heavens cast red reflections on the polished surface, and these reflections, flying off capriciously, seemed to be angry looks launched by the unfortunate, instead of imprecations. In the middle of the gallery, the prisoner stopped for a moment, to contemplate the infinite horizon, to respire the sulphurous perfumes of the tempest, to drink in thirstily the hot rain, and to breathe a sigh resembling a smothered groan.
âCome on, monsieur,â said Saint-Mars, sharply, to the prisoner, for he already became uneasy at seeing him look so long beyond the walls. âMonsieur, come on!â
âSay monseigneur!â cried Athos, from his corner, with a voice so solemn and terrible, that the governor trembled from head to foot. Athos insisted upon respect being paid to fallen majesty. The prisoner turned round.
âWho spoke?â asked Saint-Mars.
âIt was I,â replied DâArtagnan, showing himself promptly. âYou know that is the order.â
âCall me neither monsieur nor monseigneur,â said the prisoner in his turn, in a voice that penetrated to the very soul of Raoul; âcall me ACCURSED!â He passed on, and the iron door croaked after him.
âThere goes a truly unfortunate man!â murmured the musketeer in a hollow whisper, pointing out to Raoul the chamber inhabited by the prince.
Chapter XXXIII. Promises.
Scarcely had DâArtagnan re-entered his apartment with his two friends, when one of the soldiers of the fort came to inform him that the governor was seeking him. The bark which Raoul had perceived at sea, and which appeared so eager
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