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The Three Musketeers
Twenty Years Later
The Vicomte De Bragelonne
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The Three Musketeers 109 at Prostate Health
conversation naturally fell upon the incarceration of the
poor man. M. Bonacieux, who was ignorant that dArtagnan had
overheard his conversation with the stranger of Meung, related to
his young tenant the persecutions of that monster, M. de
Laffemas, whom he never ceased to designate, during his account,
by the title of the "cardinals executioner," and expatiated at
great length upon the Bastille, the bolts, the wickets, the
dungeons, the gratings, the instruments of torture.
DArtagnan listened to him with exemplary complaisance, and when
he had finished said, "And Madame Bonacieux, do you know who
carried her off?--For I do not forget that I owe to that
unpleasant circumstance the good fortune of having made your
acquaintance."
"Ah!" said Bonacieux, "they took good care not to tell me that;
and my wife, on her part, has sworn to me by all thats sacred
that she does not know. But you," continued M. Bonacieux, in a
tine of perfect good fellowship, "what has become of you all
these days? I have not seen you nor your friends, and I dont
think you could gather all that dust that I saw Planchet brush
off your boots yesterday from the pavement of Paris."
"You are right, my dear Monsieur Bonacieux, my friends and I have
been on a little journey."
"Far from here?"
"Oh, Lord, no! About forty leagues only. We went to take
Monsieur Athos to the waters of Forges, where my friends still
remain."
"And you have returned, have you not?" replied M. Bonacieux,
giving to his countenance a most sly air. "A handsome young
fellow like you does not obtain long leaves of absence from his
mistress; and we were impatiently waited for at Paris, were we
not?"
"My faith!" said the young man, laughing, "I confess it, and so
much more the readily, my dear Bonacieux, as I see there is no
concealing anything from you. Yes, I was expected, and very
impatiently, I acknowledge."
A slight shade passed over the brow of Bonacieux, but so slight
that dArtagnan did not perceive it.
"And we are going to be recompensed for our diligence?" continued
the mercer, with a trifling alteration in his voice--so trifling,
indeed, that dArtagnan did not perceive it any more than he had
the momentary shade which, an instant before, had darkened the
countenance of the worthy man.
"Ah, may you be a true prophet!" said dArtagnan, laughing.
"No; what I say," replied Bonacieux, "is only that I may know
whether I am delaying you."
"Why that question, my dear host?" asked dArtagnan. "Do you
intend to sit up for me?"
"No; but since my arrest and the robbery that was committed in my
house, I am alarmed every time I hear a door open, particularly
in the night. What the deuce can you expect? I am no
swordsman."
"Well, dont be alarmed if I return at one, two or three oclock
in the morning; indeed, do not be alarmed if I do not come at
all."
This time Bonacieux became so pale that dArtagnan could not help
perceiving it, and asked him what was the matter.
"Nothing," replied Bonacieux, "nothing. Since my misfortunes I
have been subject to faintnesses, which seize me all at once, and
I have just felt a cold shiver. Pay no attention to it; you have
nothing to occupy yourself with but being happy."
"Then I have full occupation, for I am so."
"Not yet; wait a little! This evening, you said."
"Well, this evening will come, thank God! And perhaps you look
for it with as much impatience as I do; perhaps this evening
Madame Bonacieux will visit the conjugal domicile."
"Madame Bonacieux is not at liberty this evening," replied the
husband, seriously; "she is detained at the Louvre this evening
by her duties."
"So much the worse for you, my dear host, so much the worse!
When I am happy, I wish all the world to be so; but it appears
that is not possible."
The young man departed, laughing at the joke, which he thought he
alone could comprehend.
"Amuse yourself well!" replied Bonacieux, in a sepulchral tone.
But dArtagnan was too far off to hear him; and if he had heard
him in the disposition of mind he then enjoyed, he certainly
would not have remarked it.
He took his way toward the hotel of M. de Treville; his visit of
the day before, it is to be remembered, had been very short and
very little explicative.
He found Treville in a joyful mood. He had thought the king and
queen charming at
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