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The Vicomte De Bragelonne
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The Vicomte De Bragelonne 70 at Prostate Health
forty men I willtraverse the country as a partisan. But if I fall in with,not forty thousand English, as Planchet said, but purely andsimply with four hundred, I shall be beaten. Supposing thatamong my forty warriors there should be found at least tenstupid ones -- ten who will allow themselves to be killedone after the other, from mere folly? No; it is, in fact,impossible to find forty men to be depended upon -- they donot exist. I must learn how to be contented with thirty.With ten men less I should have the right of avoiding anyarmed encounter, on account of the small number of mypeople; and if the encounter should take place, my chance isbetter with thirty men than forty. Besides, I should savefive thousand francs; that is to say, the eighth of mycapital; that is worth the trial. This being so, I shouldhave thirty men. I shall divide them into three bands, -- wewill spread ourselves about over the country, with aninjunction to reunite at a given moment; in this fashion,ten by ten, we should excite no suspicion -- we should passunperceived. Yes, yes, thirty -- that is a magic number.There are three tens -- three, that divine number! And then,truly, a company of thirty men, when all together, will lookrather imposing. Ah! stupid wretch that I am!" continuedDArtagnan, "I want thirty horses. That is ruinous. Wherethe devil was my head when I forgot the horses? We cannot,however, think of striking such a blow without horses. Well,so be it, that sacrifice must be made; we can get the horsesin the country -- they are not bad, besides. But I forgot --peste! Three bands -- that necessitates three leaders; thereis the difficulty. Of the three commanders I have alreadyone -- that is myself; -- yes, but the two others will ofthemselves cost almost as much money as all the rest of thetroop. No; positively I must have but one lieutenant. Inthat ease, then, I should reduce my troop to twenty men. Iknow very well that twenty men is but very little; but sincewith thirty I was determined not to seek to come to blows, Ishould do so more carefully still with twenty. Twenty --that is a round number; that, besides, reduces the number ofthe horses by ten, which is a consideration; and then, witha good lieutenant -- Mordioux! what things patience andcalculation are! Was I not going to embark with forty men,and I have now reduced them to twenty for an equal success?Ten thousand livres saved at one stroke, and more safety;that is well! Now, then, let us see; we have nothing to dobut to find this lieutenant -- let him be found, then; andafter -- That is not so easy; he must be brave and good, asecond myself. Yes, but a lieutenant must have my secret,and as that secret is worth a million, and I shall only paymy man a thousand livres, fifteen hundred at the most, myman will sell the secret to Monk. Mordioux! no lieutenant.Besides, this man, were he as mute as a disciple ofPythagoras, -- this man would be sure to have in the troopsome favourite soldier, whom he would make his sergeant, thesergeant would penetrate the secret of the lieutenant, incase the latter should be honest and unwilling to sell it.Then the sergeant, less honest and less ambitious, will giveup the whole for fifty thousand livres. Come, come! that isimpossible. The lieutenant is impossible. But then I musthave no fractions; I cannot divide my troop into two, andact upon two points, at once, without another self, who --But what is the use of acting upon two points, as we haveonly one man to take? What can be the good of weakening acorps by placing the right here, and the left there? Asingle corps -- Mordioux! a single one, and that commandedby DArtagnan. Very well. But twenty men marching in oneband are suspected by everybody; twenty horsemen must not beseen marching together, or a company will be detachedagainst them and the password will be required; the whichcompany, upon seeing them embarrassed to give it, wouldshoot M. dArtagnan and his men like so many rabbits. Ireduce myself then to ten men; in this fashion I shall actsimply
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