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The Three Musketeers
Twenty Years Later
The Vicomte De Bragelonne
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The Three Musketeers 51 at Prostate Health
and opal. There,
however, ended the signs which might have confounded her with a
lady of rank. The hands were white, but without delicacy; the
feet did not bespeak the woman of quality. Happily, dArtagnan
was not yet acquainted with such niceties.
While dArtagnan was examining Mme. Bonacieux, and was, as we
have said, close to her, he saw on the ground a fine cambric
handkerchief, which he picked up, as was his habit, and at the
corner of which he recognized the same cipher he had seen on the
handkerchief which had nearly caused him and Aramis to cut each
others throat.
From that time, dArtagnan had been cautious with respect to
handkerchiefs with arms on them, and he therefore placed in the
pocket of Mme. Bonacieux the one he had just picked up.
At that moment Mme. Bonacieux recovered her senses. She opened
her eyes, looked around her with terror, saw that the apartment
was empty and that she was alone with her liberator. She
extended her hands to him with a smile. Mme. Bonacieux had the
sweetest smile in the world.
"Ah, monsieur!" said she, "you have saved me; permit me to thank
you."
"Madame," said dArtagnan, "I have only done what every gentleman
would have done in my place; you owe me no thanks."
"Oh, yes, monsieur, oh, yes; and I hope to prove to you that you
have not served an ingrate. But what could these men, whom I at
first took for robbers, want with me, and why is Monsieur
Bonacieux not here?"
"Madame, those men were more dangerous than any robbers could
have been, for they are the agents of the cardinal; and as to
your husband, Monsieur Bonacieux, he is not here because he was
yesterday evening conducted to the Bastille."
"My husband in the Bastille!" cried Mme. Bonacieux. "Oh, my God!
What has he done? Poor dear man, he is innocence itself!"
And something like a faint smile lighted the still-terrified
features of the young woman.
"What has he done, madame?" said dArtagnan. "I believe that his
only crime is to have at the same time the good fortune and the
misfortune to be your husband."
"But, monsieur, you know then--"
"I know that you have been abducted, madame."
"And by whom? Do you know him? Oh, if you know him, tell me!"
"By a man of from forty to forty-five years, with black hair, a
dark complexion, and a scar on his left temple."
"That is he, that is he; but his name?"
"Ah, his name? I do not know that."
"And did my husband know I had been carried off?"
"He was informed of it by a letter, written to him by the
abductor himself."
"And does he suspect," said Mme. Bonacieux, with some
embarrassment, "the cause of this event?"
"He attributed it, I believe, to a political cause."
"I doubted from the first; and now I think entirely as he does.
Then my dear Monsieur Bonacieux has not suspected me a single
instant?"
"So far from it, madame, he was too proud of your prudence, and
above all, of your love."
A second smile, almost imperceptible, stole over the rosy lips of
the pretty young woman.
"But," continued dArtagnan, "how did you escape?"
"I took advantage of a moment when they left me alone; and as I
had known since morning the reason of my abduction, with the help
of the sheets I let myself down from the window. Then, as I
believed my husband would be at home, I hastened hither."
"To place yourself under his protection?"
"Oh, no, poor dear man! I knew very well that he was incapable
of defending me; but as he could serve us in other ways, I wished
to inform him."
"Of what?"
"Oh, that is not my secret; I must not, therefore, tell you."
"Besides," said dArtagnan, "pardon me, madame, if, guardsman as
I am, I remind you of prudence--besides, I believe we are not
here in a very proper place for imparting confidences. The men I
have put to flight will return reinforced; if they find us here,
we are lost. I have sent for three of my friends, but who knows
whether they were at home?"
"Yes, yes! You are right," cried the affrighted Mme. Bonacieux;
"let us fly! Let us save ourselves."
At these words she passed her arm under that of dArtagnan, and
urged him forward eagerly.
"But whither shall we fly--whither escape?"
"Let us first withdraw from this house; afterward we shall see."
The young woman and
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