Twenty Years Later by Dumas, Alexandre. Part one

astounded by this returning courage.

“I will tell you all,” replied Anne. “Listen: there were in

truth, at that epoch, four devoted hearts, four loyal

spirits, four faithful swords, who saved more than my life

— my honor —- ”

“Ah! you confess it!” exclaimed Mazarin.

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Dumas, Alexandre – Twenty Years After

“Is it only the guilty whose honor is at the sport of

others, sir? and cannot women be dishonored by appearances?

Yes, appearances were against me and I was about to suffer

dishonor. However, I swear I was not guilty, I swear it by

—- ”

The queen looked around her for some sacred object by which

she could swear, and taking out of a cupboard hidden in the

tapestry, a small coffer of rosewood set in silver, and

laying it on the altar:

“I swear,” she said, “by these sacred relics that Buckingham

was not my lover.”

“What relics are those by which you swear?” asked Mazarin,

smiling. “I am incredulous.”

The queen untied from around her throat a small golden key

which hung there, and presented it to the cardinal.

“Open, sir,” she said, “and look for yourself.”

Mazarin opened the coffer; a knife, covered with rust, and

two letters, one of which was stained with blood, alone met

his gaze.

“What are these things?” he asked.

“What are these things?” replied Anne, with queen-like

dignity, extending toward the open coffer an arm, despite

the lapse of years, still beautiful. “These two letters are

the only ones I ever wrote to him. This knife is the knife

with which Felton stabbed him. Read the letters and see if I

have lied or spoken the truth.”

But Mazarin, notwithstanding this permission, instead of

reading the letters, took the knife which the dying

Buckingham had snatched out of the wound and sent by Laporte

to the queen. The blade was red, for the blood had become

rust; after a momentary examination during which the queen

became as white as the cloth which covered the altar on

which she was leaning, he put it back into the coffer with

an involuntary shudder.

“It is well, madame, I believe your oath.”

“No, no, read,” exclaimed the queen, indignantly; “read, I

command you, for I am resolved that everything shall be

finished to-night and never will I recur to this subject

again. Do you think,” she said, with a ghastly smile, “that

I shall be inclined to reopen this coffer to answer any

future accusations?”

Mazarin, overcome by this determination, read the two

letters. In one the queen asked for the ornaments back

again. This letter had been conveyed by D’Artagnan and had

arrived in time. The other was that which Laporte had placed

in the hands of the Duke of Buckingham, warning him that he

was about to be assassinated; that communication had arrived

too late.

“It is well, madame,” said Mazarin; “nothing can gainsay

such testimony.”

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Dumas, Alexandre – Twenty Years After

“Sir,” replied the queen, closing the coffer and leaning her

hand upon it, “if there is anything to be said, it is that I

have always been ungrateful to the brave men who saved me —

that I have given nothing to that gallant officer,

D’Artagnan, you were speaking of just now, but my hand to

kiss and this diamond.”

As she spoke she extended her beautiful hand to the cardinal

and showed him a superb diamond which sparkled on her

finger.

“It appears,” she resumed, “that he sold it —he sold it in

order to save me another time — to be able to send a

messenger to the duke to warn him of his danger — he sold

it to Monsieur des Essarts, on whose finger I remarked it. I

bought it from him, but it belongs to D’Artagnan. Give it

back to him, sir, and since you have such a man in your

service, make him useful.”

“Thank you, madame,” said Mazarin. “I will profit by the

advice.”

“And now,” added the queen, her voice broken by her emotion,

“have you any other question to ask me?”

“Nothing,” — the cardinal spoke in his most conciliatory

manner — “except to beg of you to forgive my unworthy

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