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 51 at Prostate Health
privations.At length the noise of some heavy carts descending towardsthe Loire awakened Charles. He arose, looked around him likea man who has forgotten everything, perceived Parry, shookhim by the hand, and commanded him to settle the reckoningwith Master Cropole. Master Cropole, being called upon tosettle his account with Parry, acquitted himself, it must beallowed, like an honest man; he only made his customaryremark, that the two travelers had eaten nothing, which hadthe double disadvantage of being humiliating for hiskitchen, and of forcing him to ask payment for a repast notconsumed, but not the less lost. Parry had nothing to say tothe contrary, and paid."I hope," said the king, "it has not been the same with thehorses. I dont see that they have eaten at your expense,and it would be a misfortune for travelers like us, who havea long journey to make, to have our horses fail us."But Cropole, at this doubt, assumed his majestic air, andreplied that the stables of les Medici were not lesshospitable than its refectory.The king mounted his horse; his old servant did the same,and both set out towards Paris, without meeting a singleperson on their road, in the streets or the faubourgs of thecity. For the prince the blow was the more severe, as it wasa fresh exile. The unfortunates cling to the smallest hopes,as the happy do to the greatest good; and when they areobliged to quit the place where that hope has soothed theirhearts, they experience the mortal regret which the banishedman feels when he places his foot upon the vessel which isto bear him into exile. It appears that the heart alreadywounded so many times suffers from the least scratch; itappears that it considers as a good the momentary absence ofevil, which is nothing but the absence of pain; and thatGod, into the most terrible misfortunes, has thrown hope asthe drop of water which the rich bad man in hell entreatedof Lazarus.For one instant even the hope of Charles II. had been morethan a fugitive joy; -- that was when he found himself sokindly welcomed by his brother king; then it had taken aform that had become a reality; then, all at once, therefusal of Mazarin had reduced the fictitious reality to thestate of a dream. This promise of Louis XIV., so soonretracted, had been nothing but a mockery; a mockery likehis crown -- like his scepter -- like his friends -- likeall that had surrounded his royal childhood, and which hadabandoned his proscribed youth. Mockery! everything was amockery for Charles II. except the cold, black reposepromised by death.Such were the ideas of the unfortunate prince while sittinglistlessly upon his horse, to which he abandoned the reins;he rode slowly along beneath the warm May sun, in which thesomber misanthropy of the exile perceived a last insult tohis grief.CHAPTER 16"Remember!"A horseman was going rapidly along the road leading towardsBlois, which he had left nearly half an hour before, passedthe two travelers, and, though apparently in haste, raisedhis hat as he passed them. The king scarcely observed thisyoung man, who was about twenty-five years of age, and who,turning round several times, made friendly signals to a manstanding before the gate of a handsome white-and-red house;that is to say, built of brick and stone, with a slatedroof, situated on the left hand of the road the prince wastraveling.This man, old, tall, and thin, with white hair, -- we speakof the one standing by the gate; -- this man replied to thefarewell signals of the young one by signs of parting astender as could have been made by a father, The young mandisappeared at the first turn of the road, bordered by finetrees, and the old man was preparing to return to the house,when the two travelers, arriving in front of the gate,attracted his attention.The king, we have said, was riding with his head cast down,his arms inert, leaving his horse to go what pace he liked,whilst Parry, behind him, the better to imbibe the genialinfluence of the sun, had taken off his hat, and was lookingabout right and left. His eyes encountered those of the oldman leaning against the gate; the latter, as if struck bysome strange spectacle, uttered an exclamation, and made onestep towards the
The Vicomte De Bragelonne page 50 The Vicomte De Bragelonne page 52 |
