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The Vicomte De Bragelonne
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The Vicomte De Bragelonne 699 at Prostate Health
have me flogged."
"What! did the governor say so?"
"Yes, monsieur; and yet my boat was injured, seriously injured, for the
prow is left upon the point of Sainte-Marguerites, and the carpenter
asks a hundred and twenty livres to repair it."
"Very well," replied Raoul; "you will be exempted from the service. Go."
"We will go to Sainte-Marguerites, shall we?" said the comte to
Bragelonne, as the man walked away.
"Yes, monsieur, for there is something to be cleared up; that man does
not seem to me to have told the truth."
"Nor to me neither, Raoul. The story of the masked man and the carriage
having disappeared, may be told to conceal some violence these fellows
have committed upon their passenger in the open sea, to punish him for
his persistence in embarking."
"I formed the same suspicion; the carriage was more likely to contain
property than a man."
"We shall see to that, Raoul. This gentleman very much resembles
DArtagnan; I recognize his mode of proceeding. Alas! we are no longer
the young invincibles of former days. Who knows whether the hatchet or
the iron bar of this miserable coaster has not succeeded in doing that
which the best blades of Europe, balls, and bullets, have not been able
to do in forty years?"
That same day they set out for Sainte-Marguerites, on board a
chasse-marée come from Toulon under orders. The impression they felt on
landing was a singularly pleasing one. The isle was full of flowers and
fruits. In its cultivated part it served as a garden for the governor.
Orange, pomegranate, and fig trees bent beneath the weight of their
golden or purple fruits. All around this garden, in the uncultivated
parts, the red partridges ran about in coveys among the brambles and
tufts of junipers, and at every step of the comte and Raoul a terrified
rabbit quitted his thyme and heath to scuttle away to his burrow. In
fact, this fortunate isle was uninhabited. Flat, offering nothing but a
tiny bay for the convenience of embarkation, and under the protection of
the governor, who went shares with them, smugglers made use of it as a
provisional entrepôt, at the expense of not killing the game or
devastating the garden. With this compromise, the governor was in a
situation to be satisfied with a garrison of eight men to guard his
fortress, in which twelve cannons accumulated their coats of mouldy
green. The governor was a sort of happy farmer, harvesting wines, figs,
oil, and oranges, preserving his citrons and cédrats in the sun of his
casemates. The fortress, encircled by a deep ditch, its only guardian,
arose like three heads upon turrets connected with each other by
terraces covered with moss.
Athos and Raoul wandered for some time round the fences of the garden
without finding any one to introduce them to the governor. They ended by
making their own way into the garden. It was at the hottest time of the
day. Everything sought shelter beneath grass or stone. The heavens
spread their fiery veils as if to stifle all noises, to envelop all
existences; the rabbit under the broom, the fly under the leaf, slept as
the wave did beneath the heavens. Athos saw nothing living but a
soldier, upon the terrace beneath the second and third court, who was
carrying a basket of provisions on his head. This man returned almost
immediately without his basket, and disappeared in the shade of his
sentry-box. Athos supposed this man must have been carrying dinner to
some one, and, after having done so, returned to dine himself. All at
once, they heard some one call out, and raising their heads, perceived
in the frame of the bars of the window something of a white color, like
a hand that was waved backward and forward--something shining, like a
polished weapon struck by the rays of the sun. And before they were able
to ascertain what it was they saw, a luminous train, accompanied by a
hissing sound in the air, called their attention from the donjon to the
ground. A second dull noise was heard from the ditch, and Raoul ran to
pick up a silver plate which was rolling along the dry sand. The hand
which had thrown this plate made a sign to the two gentlemen and then
disappeared. Athos and Raoul, approaching each other, commenced an
attentive examination of the dusty plate, and they discovered, in
characters traced upon the bottom of it with the point of a knife, this
inscription:
"_I am the brother of the king of
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