Man in the Iron Mask by Dumas, Alexandre part one

“Ah! is that you, Count?” the King exclaimed, as soon as he perceived him,- doubly delighted, not only to see him again, but also to get rid of Colbert, whose scowling face always put him out of humor,- “so much the better. I am very glad to see you; you will make one of the travelling-party, I suppose?”

“Of what travelling-party are you speaking, Sire?” inquired De Saint-Aignan.

“The one we are making up to go to the fete the superintendent is about to give at Vaux. Ah! De Saint-Aignan, you will at last see a fete, a royal fete, by the side of which all our amusements at Fontainebleau are petty, contemptible affairs.”

“At Vaux?- the superintendent going to give a fete in your Majesty’s honor? Nothing more than that!”

“‘Nothing more than that!’ do you say? It is very diverting to find you treating it with so much disdain. Are you, who express such indifference on the subject, aware that as soon as it is known that M. Fouquet is going to receive me at Vaux next Sunday week, people will be striving their very utmost to get invited to the fete? I repeat, De Saint-Aignan, you shall be one of the invited guests.”

“Very well, Sire; unless I shall in the mean time have undertaken a longer and less agreeable journey.”

“What journey?”

“The one across the Styx, Sire.”

“Bah!” said Louis XIV, laughing.

“No, seriously, Sire,” replied De Saint-Aignan, “I am invited there; and in such a way, in truth, that I hardly know what to say or how to act in order to refuse it.”

“I do not understand you. I know that you are in a poetical vein; but try not to sink from Apollo to Phoebus.”

“Very well; if your Majesty will deign to listen to me, I will not keep you in suspense any longer.”

“Speak!”

“Your Majesty knows the Baron du Vallon?”

“Yes, indeed,- a good servant to my father, the late King, and an admirable companion at table; for I think you are referring to him who dined with us at Fontainebleau?”

“Precisely; but you have omitted to add to his other qualifications, Sire, that he is a most charming killer of people.”

“What! does M. du Vallon wish to kill you?”

“Or to get me killed,- which is the same thing.”

“Bless my heart!”

“Do not laugh, Sire, for I am not saying a word that is not the exact truth.”

“And you say he wishes to get you killed?”

“That is that excellent person’s present idea.”

“Be easy; I will defend you, if he be in the wrong.”

“Ah! there is an ‘if’.”

“Of course! Answer me as candidly as if it were some one else’s affair instead of your own, my poor De Saint-Aignan: is he right or wrong?”

“Your Majesty shall be the judge.”

“What have you done to him?”

“To him, personally, nothing at all; but it seems I have to one of his friends.”

“It is all the same. Is his friend one of the celebrated ‘four’?”

“No! It is only the son of one of the celebrated ‘four.'”

“What have you done to the son? Come, tell me.”

“Why, I have helped some one to take his mistress from him.”

“You confess it, then?

“I cannot help confessing it, for it is true.”

“In that case you are wrong.”

“Ah! I am wrong?”

“Yes; and my faith, if he kills you-”

“Well?”

“Well, he will do what is right.”

“Ah! that is your Majesty’s way of reasoning, then?”

“Do you think it a bad way?”

“It is a very expeditious way.”

“‘Good justice is prompt’; so my grandfather Henry IV used to say.”

“In that case your Majesty will immediately sign my adversary’s pardon, for he is now waiting for me at the Minimes to kill me.”

“His name, and a parchment!”

“There is a parchment upon your Majesty’s table; and as for his name-”

“Well, what is it?”

“The Vicomte de Bragelonne, Sire.”

“The Vicomte de Bragelonne!” exclaimed the King, changing from a fit of laughter to the most profound stupor; and then after a moment’s silence, while he wiped his forehead, which was bedewed with perspiration, he again murmured, “Bragelonne!”

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *