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Books
The Three Musketeers
Twenty Years Later
The Vicomte De Bragelonne
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The Vicomte De Bragelonne 589 at Prostate Health
I was about,
and urged on by one of those instinctive impulses which drive men upon
their destruction, I lowered the cord from the windlass of the well to
within about three feet of the water, leaving the bucket dangling, and
at the same time taking infinite pains not to disturb that coveted
letter, which was beginning to change its white tint for a greenish
hue--proof enough that it was sinking--and then, with the rope weltering
in my hands, slid down into the abyss.
"When I saw myself hanging over the dark pool, when I saw the sky
lessening above my head, a cold shudder came over me, a chill fear got
the better of me, I was seized with giddiness, and the hair rose on my
head; but my strong will still reigned supreme over all the terror and
disquietude. I gained the water, and at once plunged into it, holding on
by one hand, while I immersed the other and seized the dear letter,
which, alas! came in two in my grasp. I concealed the two fragments in
my body-coat, and helping myself with my feet against the side of the
pit, and clinging on with my hands, agile and vigorous as I was, and,
above all, pressed for time, I regained the brink, drenching it as I
touched it with the water that streamed off me. I was no sooner out of
the well with my prize, than I rushed into the sunlight, and took refuge
in a kind of shrubbery at the bottom of the garden. As I entered my
hiding-place, the bell which resounded when the great gate was opened,
rang. It was my preceptor come back again. I had but just time. I
calculated that it would take ten minutes before he would gain my place
of concealment even if, guessing where I was, he came straight to it;
and twenty if he were obliged to look for me. But this was time enough
to allow me to read the cherished letter, whose fragments I hastened to
unite again. The writing was already fading, but I managed to decipher
it all."
"And what read you there, monseigneur?" asked Aramis, deeply interested.
"Quite enough, monsieur, to see that my tutor was a man of noble rank,
and that Perronnette, without being a lady of quality, was far better
than a servant; and also to perceive that I must myself be high-born,
since the queen, Anne of Austria, and Mazarin, the prime minister,
commended me so earnestly to their care." Here the young man paused,
quite overcome.
"And what happened?" asked Aramis.
"It happened, monsieur," answered he, "that the workmen they had
summoned found nothing in the well, after the closest search; that my
governor perceived that the brink was all watery; that I was not so well
dried by the sun as to escape Dame Perronnettes observing that my
garments were moist; and, lastly, that I was seized with a violent
fever, owing to the chill and the excitement of my discovery, an attack
of delirium supervening, during which I related the whole adventure; so
that, guided by my avowal, my governor found, under the bolster, the two
pieces of the queens letter."
"Ah!" said Aramis, "now I understand."
"Beyond this all is conjecture. Doubtless the unfortunate lady and
gentleman, not daring to keep the occurrence secret, wrote all to the
queen, and sent back to her the torn letter."
"After which," said Aramis, "you were arrested and removed to the
Bastille."
"As you see."
"Then your two attendants disappeared?"
"Alas!"
"Let us not take up our time with the dead, but see what can be done
with the living. You told me you were resigned."
"I repeat it."
"Without any desire for freedom?"
"As I told you."
"Without ambition, sorrow, or even thought?"
The young man made no answer.
"Well," asked Aramis, "why are you silent?"
"I think I have spoken enough," answered the prisoner; "and that now it
is your turn. I am weary."
Aramis gathered himself up, and a shade of deep solemnity spread itself
over his countenance. It was evident that he had reached the crisis in
the part he had come to the prison to play. "One question," said Aramis.
"What is it? speak."
"In the house you inhabited there were neither looking-glasses nor
mirrors?"
"What are those two words, and what is their meaning?" asked the young
man; "I have no sort of knowledge of them."
"They designate two pieces of furniture which reflect objects; so that,
for instance, you may see in them your own lineaments, as you see mine
now, with the
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