of your father, if he were still alive, and if I had met him
after my return to France, subsequent to the death of King
Charles I.”
“That is too much, M. d’Artagnan,” exclaimed many voices,
with animation.
“No, gentlemen,” said the captain. “And now, M. de Wardes, I
hope all is finished between us, and that you will have no
further occasion to speak ill of me again. Do you consider
it completely settled?”
De Wardes bowed, and muttered to himself inarticulately.
“I trust also,” said D’Artagnan, approaching the young man
closely, “that you will no longer speak ill of any one, as
it seems you have the unfortunate habit of doing; for a man
so puritanically conscientious as you are, who can reproach
an old soldier for a youthful freak five-and-thirty years
after it happened, will allow me to ask whether you who
advocate such excessive purity of conscience, will undertake
on your side to do nothing contrary either to conscience or
the principle of honor. And now, listen attentively to what
I am going to say, M. de Wardes, in conclusion. Take care
that no tale, with which your name may be associated,
reaches my ear.”
“Monsieur,” said De Wardes, “it is useless threatening to no
purpose.”
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Dumas, Alexandre – Ten Years Later
“I have not yet finished, M. de Wardes, and you must listen
to me still further.” The circle of listeners, full of eager
curiosity, drew closer. “You spoke just now of the honor of
a woman, and of the honor of your father. We were glad to
hear you speak in that manner; for it is pleasing to think
that such a sentiment of delicacy and rectitude, and which
did not exist, it seems, in our minds, lives in our
children; and it is delightful too, to see a young man, at
an age when men from habit become the destroyers of the
honor of women, respect and defend it.”
De Wardes bit his lips and clenched his hands, evidently
much disturbed to learn how this discourse, the commencement
of which was announced in so threatening a manner, would
terminate.
“How did it happen, then, that you allowed yourself to say
to M. de Bragelonne that he did not know who his mother
was?”
Raoul’s eye flashed, as, darting forward, he exclaimed, —
“Chevalier, this is a personal affair of my own!” At which
exclamation, a smile, full of malice, passed across De
Wardes’s face.
D’Artagnan put Raoul aside, saying, — “Do not interrupt me,
young man.” And looking at De Wardes in an authoritative
manner, he continued: — “I am now dealing with a matter
which cannot be settled by means of the sword. I discuss it
before men of honor, all of whom have more than once had
their swords in their hands in affairs of honor. I selected
them expressly. These gentlemen well know that every secret
for which men fight ceases to be a secret. I again put my
question to M. de Wardes. What was the subject of
conversation when you offended this young man, in offending
his father and mother at the same time?”
“It seems to me,” returned De Wardes, “that liberty of
speech is allowed, when it is supported by every means which
a man of courage has at his disposal.”
“Tell me what the means are by which a man of courage can
sustain a slanderous expression.”
“The sword.”
“You fail, not only in logic, in your argument, but in
religion and honor. You expose the lives of many others,
without referring to your own, which seems to be full of
hazard. Besides, fashions pass away, monsieur, and the
fashion of duelling has passed away, without referring in
any way to the edicts of his majesty which forbid it.
Therefore, in order to be consistent with your own
chivalrous notions, you will at once apologize to M. de
Bragelonne; you will tell him how much you regret having
spoken so lightly, and that the nobility and purity of his
race are inscribed, not in his heart alone, but still more
in every action of his life. You will do and say this, M. de