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The Vicomte De Bragelonne 76 at Prostate Health
under proper garments theirhearts would beat again. DArtagnan, not to create anyjealousy with the others, made the rest go forward. He kepthis two selected ones, clothed them from his own wardrobe,and set out with them.It was to these two, whom he seemed to honor with anabsolute confidence, that DArtagnan imparted a falsesecret, destined to secure the success of the expedition. Heconfessed to them that the object was not to learn to whatextent the French merchants were injured by Englishsmuggling, but to learn how far French smuggling could annoyEnglish trade. These men appeared convinced; they wereeffectively so. DArtagnan was quite sure that at the firstdebauch when thoroughly drunk, one of the two would divulgethe secret to the whole band. His game appeared infallible.A fortnight after all we have said had taken place atCalais, the whole troop assembled at the Hague.Then DArtagnan perceived that all his men, with remarkableintelligence, had already travestied themselves intosailors, more or less ill-treated by the sea. DArtagnanleft them to sleep in a den in Newkerke street, whilst helodged comfortably upon the Grand Canal. He learned that theking of England had come back to his old ally, William II.of Nassau, stadtholder of Holland. He learned also that therefusal of Louis XIV. had a little cooled the protectionafforded him up to that time, and in consequence he had goneto reside in a little village house at Scheveningen,situated in the downs, on the sea-shore, about a league fromthe Hague.There, it was said, the unfortunate banished king consoledhimself in his exile, by looking, with the melancholypeculiar to the princes of his race, at that immense NorthSea, which separated him from his England, as it hadformerly separated Mary Stuart from France. There behind thetrees of the beautiful wood of Scheveningen on the fine sandupon which grows the golden broom of the down, Charles II.vegetated as it did, more unfortunate, for he had life andthought, and he hoped and despaired by turns.DArtagnan went once as far as Scheveningen, in order to becertain that all was true that was said of the king. Hebeheld Charles II., pensive and alone, coming out of alittle door opening into the wood, and walking on the beachin the setting sun, without even attracting the attention ofthe fishermen, who, on their return in the evening, drew,like the ancient mariners of the Archipelago, their barks upupon the sand of the shore.DArtagnan recognized the king; he saw him fix hismelancholy look upon the immense extent of the waters, andabsorb upon his pale countenance the red rays of the sunalready cut by the black line of the horizon. Then Charlesreturned to his isolated abode, always alone, slow and sad,amusing himself with making the friable and moving sandcreak beneath his feet.That very evening DArtagnan hired for a thousand livres afishing-boat worth four thousand. He paid a thousand livresdown, and deposited the three thousand with a Burgomaster,after which he brought on board without their being seen,the ten men who formed his land army; and with the risingtide, at three oclock in the morning, he got into the opensea, maneuvering ostensibly with the four others, anddepending upon the science of his galley slave as upon thatof the first pilot of the port.CHAPTER 23In which the Author, very unwillingly, is forced to write a Little HistoryWhile kings and men were thus occupied with England, whichgoverned itself quite alone, and which, it must be said inits praise, had never been so badly governed, a man uponwhom God had fixed his eye, and placed his finger, a manpredestined to write his name in brilliant letters upon thepage of history, was pursuing in the face of the world awork full of mystery and audacity. He went on, and no oneknew whither he meant to go, although not only England, butFrance, and Europe, watched him marching with a firm stepand head held high. All that was known of this man we areabout to tell.Monk had just declared himself in favor of the liberty ofthe Rump Parliament, a parliament which General Lambert,imitating Cromwell, whose lieutenant he had been, had justblocked up so closely, in order to bring it to his will,that no member, during all the blockade, was able to go out,and only one, Peter Wentworth, had been able to get
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