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The Vicomte De Bragelonne
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The Vicomte De Bragelonne 72 at Prostate Health
his portmanteau, cannot cross a river soeasily -- cannot leap over a wall or ditch so lightly; andthe horse failing, the horseman fails. It is true that you,Planchet, who have served in the infantry, may not be awareof all that.""Then what is to be done, monsieur?" said Planchet, greatlyembarrassed."Listen to me," said DArtagnan. "I will pay my army on itsreturn home. Keep my half of twenty thousand livres, whichyou can use during that time.""And my half?" said Planchet."I shall take that with me.""Your confidence does me honor," said Planchet: "butsupposing you should not return?""That is possible, though not very probable. Then, Planchet,in case I should not return -- give me a pen! I will make mywill." DArtagnan took a pen and some paper, and wrote upona plain sheet, -- "I, DArtagnan, possess twenty thousandlivres, laid up cent by cent during thirty years that I havebeen in the service of his majesty the king of France. Ileave five thousand to Athos, five thousand to Porthos andfive thousand to Aramis, that they may give the said sums inmy name and their own to my young friend Raoul, Vicomte deBragelonne. I give the remaining five thousand to Planchet,that he may distribute the fifteen thousand with less regretamong my friends. With which purpose I sign these presents.-- DArtagnan.Planchet appeared very curious to know what DArtagnan hadwritten."Here," said the musketeer, "read it"On reading the last lines the tears came into Planchetseyes. "You think, then, that I would not have given themoney without that? Then I will have none of your fivethousand francs."DArtagnan smiled. "Accept it, accept it, Planchet; and inthat way you will only lose fifteen thousand francs insteadof twenty thousand, and you will not be tempted to disregardthe signature of your master and friend, by losing nothingat all."How well that dear Monsieur dArtagnan knew the hearts ofmen and grocers! They who have pronounced Don Quixote madbecause he rode out to the conquest of an empire with nobodybut Sancho, his squire, and they who have pronounced Sanchomad because he accompanied his master in his attempt toconquer the said empire, -- they certainly will have nohesitation in extending the same judgment to DArtagnan andPlanchet. And yet the first passed for one of the mostsubtle spirits among the astute spirits of the court ofFrance. As to the second, he had acquired by good right thereputation of having one of the longest heads among thegrocers of the Rue des Lombards; consequently of Paris, andconsequently of France. Now, to consider these two men fromthe point of view from which you would consider other men,and the means by the aid of which they contemplated torestore a monarch to his throne, compared with other means,the shallowest brains of the country where brains are mostshallow must have revolted against the presumptuous madnessof the lieutenant and the stupidity of his associate.Fortunately, DArtagnan was not a man to listen to the idletalk of those around him, or to the comments that were madeon himself. He had adopted the motto, "Act well, and letpeople talk." Planchet on his part, had adopted this, "Actand say nothing." It resulted from this, that, according tothe custom of all superior geniuses, these two men flatteredthemselves intra pectus, with being in the right against allwho found fault with them.As a beginning, DArtagnan set out in the finest of possibleweather, without a cloud in the heavens -- without a cloudon his mind, joyous and strong, calm and decided, great inhis resolution, and consequently carrying with him a tenfolddose of that potent fluid which the shocks of mind cause tospring from the nerves, and which procure for the humanmachine a force and an influence of which future ages willrender, according to all probability, a more arithmeticalaccount than we can possibly do at present. He was again, asin times past, on that same road of adventures which had ledhim to Boulogne, and which he was now traveling for thefourth time. It appeared to him that he could almostrecognize the trace of his own steps upon the road, and thatof his first upon the doors of the hostelries; -- hismemory, always active and present, brought back that youthwhich neither thirty years later his great heart nor hiswrist of steel would have belied. What a
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