“Your feet, too,” said Grimaud.
La Ramee stretched out his legs, Grimaud took a table-cloth,
tore it into strips and tied La Ramee’s feet together.
“Now, my lord,” said the poor man, “let me have the poire
d’angoisse. I ask for it; without it I should be tried in a
court of justice because I did not raise the alarm. Thrust
it into my mouth, my lord, thrust it in.”
Grimaud prepared to comply with this request, when the
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officer made a sign as if he had something to say.
“Speak,” said the duke.
“Now, my lord, do not forget, if any harm happens to me on
your account, that I have a wife and four children.”
“Rest assured; put the gag in, Grimaud.”
In a second La Ramee was gagged and laid prostrate. Two or
three chairs were thrown down as if there had been a
struggle. Grimaud then took from the pocket of the officer
all the keys it contained and first opened the door of the
room in which they were, then shut it and double-locked it,
and both he and the duke proceeded rapidly down the gallery
which led to the little inclosure. At last they reached the
tennis court. It was completely deserted. No sentinels, no
one at any of the windows. The duke ran to the rampart and
perceived on the other side of the ditch, three cavaliers
with two riding horses. The duke exchanged a signal with
them. It was indeed for him that they were there.
Grimaud, meantime, undid the means of escape.
This was not, however, a rope ladder, but a ball of silk
cord, with a narrow board which was to pass between the
legs, the ball to unwind itself by the weight of the person
who sat astride upon the board.
“Go!” said the duke.
“First, my lord?” inquired Grimaud.
“Certainly. If I am caught, I risk nothing but being taken
back again to prison. If they catch thee, thou wilt be
hung.”
“True,” replied Grimaud.
And instantly, Grimaud, sitting upon the board as if on
horseback, commenced his perilous descent.
The duke followed him with his eyes, with involuntary
terror. He had gone down about three-quarters of the length
of the wall when the cord broke. Grimaud fell —
precipitated into the moat.
The duke uttered a cry, but Grimaud did not give a single
moan. He must have been dreadfully hurt, for he did not stir
from the place where he fell.
Immediately one of the men who were waiting slipped down
into the moat, tied under Grimaud’s shoulders the end of a
cord, and the remaining two, who held the other end, drew
Grimaud to them.
“Descend, my lord,” said the man in the moat. “There are
only fifteen feet more from the top down here, and the grass
is soft.”
The duke had already begun to descend. His task was the more
difficult, as there was no board to support him. He was
obliged to let himself down by his hands and from a height
of fifty feet. But as we have said he was active, strong,
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Dumas, Alexandre – Twenty Years After
and full of presence of mind. In less than five minutes he
arrived at the end of the cord. He was then only fifteen
feet from the ground, as the gentlemen below had told him.
He let go the rope and fell upon his feet, without receiving
any injury.
He instantly began to climb up the slope of the moat, on the
top of which he met De Rochefort. The other two gentlemen
were unknown to him. Grimaud, in a swoon, was tied securely
to a horse.
“Gentlemen,” said the duke, “I will thank you later; now we
have not a moment to lose. On, then! on! those who love me,
follow me!”
And he jumped on his horse and set off at full gallop,
snuffing the fresh air in his triumph and shouting out, with
an expression of face which it would be impossible to
describe:
“Free! free! free!”
24
The timely Arrival of D’Artagnan in Paris.
At Blois, D’Artagnan received the money paid to him by