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The Three Musketeers
Twenty Years Later
The Vicomte De Bragelonne
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The Three Musketeers 139 at Prostate Health
removed and of the
groaning of posts; these were the counterscarps and bastions of
Athos, which the besieged himself demolished.
An instant after, the broken door was removed, and the pale face
of Athos appeared, who with a rapid glance took a survey of the
surroundings.
DArtagnan threw himself on his neck and embraced him tenderly.
He then tried to draw him from his moist abode, but to his
surprise he perceived that Athos staggered.
"You are wounded," said he.
"I! Not at all. I am dead drunk, thats all, and never did a
man more strongly set about getting so. By the Lord, my good
host! I must at least have drunk for my part a hundred and fifty
bottles."
"Mercy!" cried the host, "if the lackey has drunk only half as
much as the master, I am a ruined man."
"Grimaud is a well-bred lackey. He would never think of faring
in the same manner as his master; he only drank from the cask.
Hark! I dont think he put the faucet in again. Do you hear it?
It is running now."
DArtagnan burst into a laugh which changed the shiver of the
host into a burning fever.
In the meantime, Grimaud appeared in his turn behind his master,
with the musketoon on his shoulder, and his head shaking. Like
one of those drunken satyrs in the pictures of Rubens. He was
moistened before and behind with a greasy liquid which the host
recognized as his best olive oil.
The four crossed the public room and proceeded to take possession
of the best apartment in the house, which dArtagnan occupied
with authority.
In the meantime the host and his wife hurried down with lamps
into the cellar, which had so long been interdicted to them and
where a frightful spectacle awaited them.
Beyond the fortifications through which Athos had made a breach
in order to get out, and which were composed of fagots, planks,
and empty casks, heaped up according to all the rules of the
strategic art, they found, swimming in puddles of oil and wine,
the bones and fragments of all the hams they had eaten; while a
heap of broken bottles filled the whole left-hand corner of the
cellar, and a tun, the cock of which was left running, was
yielding, by this means, the last drop of its blood. "The image
of devastation and death," as the ancient poet says, "reigned as
over a field of battle."
Of fifty large sausages, suspended from the joists, scarcely ten
remained.
Then the lamentations of the host and hostess pierced the vault
of the cellar. DArtagnan himself was moved by them. Athos did
not even turn his head.
To grief succeeded rage. The host armed himself with a spit, and
rushed into the chamber occupied by the two friends.
"Some wine!" said Athos, on perceiving the host.
"Some wine!" cried the stupefied host, "some wine? Why you have
drunk more than a hundred pistoles worth! I am a ruined man,
lost, destroyed!"
"Bah," said Athos, "we were always dry."
"If you had been contented with drinking, well and good; but you
have broken all the bottles."
"You pushed me upon a heap which rolled down. That was your
fault."
"All my oil is lost!"
"Oil is a sovereign balm for wounds; and my poor Grimaud here was
obliged to dress those you had inflicted on him."
"All my sausages are gnawed!"
"There is an enormous quantity of rats in that cellar."
"You shall pay me for all this," cried the exasperated host.
"Triple ass!" said Athos, rising; but he sank down again
immediately. He had tried his strength to the utmost.
dArtagnan came to his relief with his whip in his hand.
The host drew back and burst into tears.
"This will teach you," said dArtagnan, "to treat the guests God
sends you in a more courteous fashion."
"God? Say the devil!"
"My dear friend," said dArtagnan, "if you annoy us in this
manner we will all four go and shut ourselves up in your cellar,
and we will see if the mischief is as great as you say."
"Oh, gentlemen," said the host, "I have been wrong. I confess
it, but pardon to every sin! You are gentlemen, and I am a poor
innkeeper. You will have pity on me."
"Ah, if you speak in that way," said Athos, "you will break my
heart, and the tears will flow from my eyes as the wine flowed
from the cask. We are not such devils as
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