Twenty Years Later by Dumas, Alexandre. Part one

on horseback, feeling no inclination to dismount, and sat

looking at the bars, at the buttressed windows and the

immense walls he had hitherto only seen from the other side

of the moat, but by which he had for twenty years been

awe-struck.

A bell resounded.

“I must leave you,” said Du Tremblay; “I am sent for to sign

the release of a prisoner. I shall be happy to meet you

again, sir.”

“May the devil annihilate me if I return thy wish!” murmured

D’Artagnan, smiling as he pronounced the imprecation; “I

declare I feel quite ill after only being five minutes in

Page 20

Dumas, Alexandre – Twenty Years After

the courtyard. Go to! go to! I would rather die on straw

than hoard up a thousand a year by being governor of the

Bastile.”

He had scarcely finished this soliloquy before the prisoner

arrived. On seeing him D’Artagnan could hardly suppress an

exclamation of surprise. The prisoner got into the carriage

without seeming to recognize the musketeer.

“Gentlemen,” thus D’Artagnan addressed the four musketeers,

“I am ordered to exercise the greatest possible care in

guarding the prisoner, and since there are no locks to the

carriage, I shall sit beside him. Monsieur de Lillebonne,

lead my horse by the bridle, if you please.” As he spoke he

dismounted, gave the bridle of his horse to the musketeer

and placing himself by the side of the prisoner said, in a

voice perfectly composed, “To the Palais Royal, at full

trot.”

The carriage drove on and D’Artagnan, availing himself of

the darkness in the archway under which they were passing,

threw himself into the arms of the prisoner.

“Rochefort!” he exclaimed; “you! is it you, indeed? I am not

mistaken?”

“D’Artagnan!” cried Rochefort.

“Ah! my poor friend!” resumed D’Artagnan, “not having seen

you for four or five years I concluded you were dead.”

“I’faith,” said Rochefort, “there’s no great difference, I

think, between a dead man and one who has been buried alive;

now I have been buried alive, or very nearly so.”

“And for what crime are you imprisoned in the Bastile.”

“Do you wish me to speak the truth?”

“Yes.”

“Well, then, I don’t know.”

“Have you any suspicion of me, Rochefort?”

“No! on the honor of a gentleman; but I cannot be imprisoned

for the reason alleged; it is impossible.”

“What reason?” asked D’Artagnan.

“For stealing.”

“For stealing! you, Rochefort! you are laughing at me.”

“I understand. You mean that this demands explanation, do

you not?”

“I admit it.”

“Well, this is what actually took place: One evening after

an orgy in Reinard’s apartment at the Tuileries with the Duc

d’Harcourt, Fontrailles, De Rieux and others, the Duc

d’Harcourt proposed that we should go and pull cloaks on the

Pont Neuf; that is, you know, a diversion which the Duc

Page 21

Dumas, Alexandre – Twenty Years After

d’Orleans made quite the fashion.”

“Were you crazy, Rochefort? at your age!”

“No, I was drunk. And yet, since the amusement seemed to me

rather tame, I proposed to Chevalier de Rieux that we should

be spectators instead of actors, and, in order to see to

advantage, that we should mount the bronze horse. No sooner

said than done. Thanks to the spurs, which served as

stirrups, in a moment we were perched upon the croupe; we

were well placed and saw everything. Four or five cloaks had

already been lifted, with a dexterity without parallel, and

not one of the victims had dared to say a word, when some

fool of a fellow, less patient than the others, took it into

his head to cry out, `Guard!’ and drew upon us a patrol of

archers. Duc d’Harcourt, Fontrailles, and the others

escaped; De Rieux was inclined to do likewise, but I told

him they wouldn’t look for us where we were. He wouldn’t

listen, put his foot on the spur to get down, the spur

broke, he fell with a broken leg, and, instead of keeping

quiet, took to crying out like a gallows-bird. I then was

ready to dismount, but it was too late; I descended into the

arms of the archers. They conducted me to the Chatelet,

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 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162

Leave a Reply 0

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