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The Three Musketeers
Twenty Years Later
The Vicomte De Bragelonne
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The Three Musketeers 86 at Prostate Health
which you will deliver
into the proper hands."
"And whither am I to go?"
"To London."
"I go to London? Go to! You jest! I have no business in
London."
"But others wish that you should go there."
"But who are those others? I warn you that I will never again
work in the dark, and that I will know not only to what I expose
myself, but for whom I expose myself."
"An illustrious person sends you; an illustrious person awaits
you. The recompense will exceed your expectations; that is all I
promise you."
"More intrigues! Nothing but intrigues! Thank you, madame, I am
aware of them now; Monsieur Cardinal has enlightened me on that
head."
"The cardinal?" cried Mme. Bonacieux. "Have you seen the
cardinal?"
"He sent for me," answered the mercer, proudly.
"And you responded to his bidding, you imprudent man?"
"Well, I cant say I had much choice of going or not going, for I
was taken to him between two guards. It is true also, that as I
did not then know his Eminence, if I had been able to dispense
with the visit, I should have been enchanted."
"He ill-treated you, then; he threatened you?"
"He gave me his hand, and called me his friend. His friend! Do
you hear that, madame? I am the friend of the great cardinal!"
"Of the great cardinal!"
"Perhaps you would contest his right to that title, madame?"
"I would contest nothing; but I tell you that the favor of a
minister is ephemeral, and that a man must be mad to attach
himself to a minister. There are powers above his which do not
depend upon a man or the issue of an event; it is to these powers
we should rally."
"I am sorry for it, madame, but I acknowledge not her power but
that of the great man whom I have the honor to serve."
"You serve the cardinal?"
"Yes, madame; and as his servant, I will not allow you to be
concerned in plots against the safety of the state, or to serve
the intrigues of a woman who is not French and who has a Spanish
heart. Fortunately we have the great cardinal; his vigilant eye
watches over and penetrates to the bottom of the heart."
Bonacieux was repeating, word for word, a sentence which he had
heard from the Comte de Rochefort; but the poor wife, who had
reckoned on her husband, and who, in that hope, had answered for
him to the queen, did not tremble the less, both at the danger
into which she had nearly cast herself and at the helpless state
to which she was reduced. Nevertheless, knowing the weakness of
her husband, and more particularly his cupidity, she did not
despair of bringing him round to her purpose.
"Ah, you are a cardinalist, then, monsieur, are you?" cried she;
"and you serve the party of those who maltreat your wife and
insult your queen?"
"Private interests are as nothing before the interests of all. I
am for those who save the state," said Bonacieux, emphatically.
"And what do you know about the state you talk of?" said Mme.
Bonacieux, shrugging her shoulders. "Be satisfied with being a
plain, straightforward citizen, and turn to that side which
offers the most advantages."
"Eh, eh!" said Bonacieux, slapping a plump, round bag, which
returned a sound a money; "what do you think of this, Madame
Preacher?"
"Whence comes that money?"
"You do not guess?"
"From the cardinal?"
"From him, and from my friend the Comte de Rochefort."
"The Comte de Rochefort! Why it was he who carried me off!"
"That may be, madame!"
"And you receive silver from that man?"
"Have you not said that that abduction was entirely political?"
"Yes; but that abduction had for its object the betrayal of my
mistress, to draw from me by torture confessions that might
compromise the honor, and perhaps the life, of my august
mistress."
"Madame," replied Bonacieux, "your august mistress is a
perfidious Spaniard, and what the cardinal does is well done."
"Monsieur," said the young woman, "I know you to be cowardly,
avaricious, and foolish, but I never till now believed you
infamous!"
"Madame," said Bonacieux, who had never seen his wife in a
passion, and who recoiled before this conjugal anger, "madame,
what do you say?"
"I say you are a miserable creature!" continued Mme. Bonacieux,
who saw she was regaining some little influence over her husband.
"You meddle with politics, do you--and still more, with
cardinalist politics? Why, you sell yourself, body and soul,
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