Prostate Health
Prostate Articles
Antioxidant levels key for prostate cancer risk
Obesity and prostate health
Tomatoes for prostate health
Green tea and prostate health
Screening tests for prostate
Books
The Three Musketeers
Twenty Years Later
The Vicomte De Bragelonne
|
|
The Vicomte De Bragelonne 369 at Prostate Health
here from
Fontainebleau; in other words, you have no longer your orders to issue,
or your men to review and maneuver. You need the sound of guns, drums,
and all that din and confusion; I, who have myself carried a musket, can
easily believe that."
"Planchet," replied DArtagnan, "I assure you I am not bored the least
in the world."
"In that case, what are you doing, lying there as if you were dead?"
"My dear Planchet, there was, once upon a time, at the siege of
Rochelle, when I was there, when you were there, when we both were
there, a certain Arab, who was celebrated for the manner in which he
adjusted culverins. He was a clever fellow, although very singular with
regard to his complexion, which was the same color as your olives. Well,
this Arab, whenever he had done eating or working, used to sit down to
rest himself, as I am resting myself now, and smoked I cannot tell you
what sort of magical leaves, in a large amber-mouthed tube; and if any
officer, happening to pass, reproached him for being always asleep, he
used quietly to reply: Better to sit down than to stand up, to lie down
than to sit down, to be dead than to lie down. He was a very melancholy
Arab, and I remember him perfectly well, from his color and his style of
conversation. He used to cut off the heads of the Protestants with
extreme satisfaction."
"Precisely; and then used to embalm them, when they were worth the
trouble."
"Yes; and when he was engaged in his embalming occupations, with his
herbs and other plants about him, he looked like a basket-maker making
baskets."
"You are quite right, Planchet; he did so."
"Oh, I can remember things very well at times!"
"I have no doubt of it; but what do you think of his mode of
reasoning?"
"I think it very good in one sense, and stupid in another."
"Propound your meaning, M. Planchet."
"Well, monsieur, in point of fact, then, better to sit down than to
stand up is plain enough, especially when one may be fatigued under
certain circumstances:" and Planchet smiled in a roguish way. "As for
better to be lying down than sitting down, let that pass; but as for
the last proposition, that it is better to be dead than alive, it is,
in my opinion, very absurd, my own undoubted preference being for my
bed; and if you are not of my opinion, it is simply, as I have already
had the honor of telling you, because you are boring yourself to death."
"Planchet, do you know M. la Fontaine?"
"The chemist at the corner of the Rue Saint-Mederie?"
"No; the writer of fables?"
"Oh! Maitre Corbeau!"
"Exactly so; well, then, I am like his hare."
"He has got a hare also, then?"
"He has all sorts of animals."
"Well, what does his hare do, then?"
"His hare thinks."
"Ah, ah!"
"Planchet, I am like M. la Fontaines hare--I am thinking."
"Youre thinking, you say?" said Planchet, uneasily.
"Yes; your house is dull enough to drive people to think. You will admit
that, I hope."
"And yet, monsieur, you have a look out upon the street."
"Yes; and wonderfully interesting that is, of course."
"But it is no less true, monsieur, that, if you were living at the back
of the house, you would bore yourself--I mean, you would think--more
than ever."
"Upon my word, Planchet, I hardly know that."
"Still," said the grocer, "if your reflections were at all like those
which led you to restore King Charles II.;" and Planchet finished by a
little laugh which was not without its meaning.
"Ah, Planchet, my friend," returned DArtagnan, "you are getting
ambitious."
"Is there no other king to be restored, M. dArtagnan--no other Monk to
be put into a box?"
"No, my dear Planchet; all the kings are seated on their various
thrones--less comfortably so, perhaps, than I am upon this chair; but,
at all events, there they are." And DArtagnan sighed very deeply.
"Monsieur dArtagnan," said Planchet, "you are making me very uneasy."
"Youre very good, Planchet."
"I begin to suspect something."
"What is it?"
"Monsieur dArtagnan, you are getting thin."
"Oh!" said DArtagnan, striking his chest, which sounded like an empty
cuirass; "it is impossible, Planchet."
"Ah!" said Planchet, slightly overcome, "if you were to get thin in my
house--"
"Well?"
"I should do something rash."
"What would you do? Tell me."
"I should look out for the man who was the cause of all your anxieties."
"Ah! according to your account, I am anxious now."
"Yes, you are anxious, and you are getting
The Vicomte De Bragelonne page 368 The Vicomte De Bragelonne page 370 |
