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The Three Musketeers
Twenty Years Later
The Vicomte De Bragelonne
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Twenty Years Later 60 at Prostate Health
to escape
from Vincennes, if he has not done so already."
The officers face expressed complete stupefaction. He
opened at once his little eyes and his great mouth, to
inhale better the joke his eminence deigned to address to
him, and ended by a burst of laughter, so violent that his
great limbs shook in hilarity as they would have done in an
ague.
"Escape! my lord -- escape! Your eminence does not then know
where Monsieur de Beaufort is?"
"Yes, I do, sir; in the donjon of Vincennes."
"Yes, sir; in a room, the walls of which are seven feet
thick, with grated windows, each bar as thick as my arm."
"Sir," replied Mazarin, "with perseverance one may penetrate
through a wall; with a watch-spring one may saw through an
iron bar."
"Then my lord does not know that there are eight guards
about him, four in his chamber, four in the antechamber, and
that they never leave him."
"But he leaves his room, he plays at tennis at the Mall?"
"Sir, those amusements are allowed; but if your eminence
wishes it, we will discontinue the permission."
"No, no!" cried Mazarin, fearing that should his prisoner
ever leave his prison he would be the more exasperated
against him if he thus retrenched his amusement. He then
asked with whom he played.
"My lord, either with the officers of the guard, with the
other prisoners, or with me."
"But does he not approach the walls while playing?"
"Your eminence doesnt know those walls; they are sixty feet
high and I doubt if Monsieur de Beaufort is sufficiently
weary of life to risk his neck by jumping off."
"Hum!" said the cardinal, beginning to feel more
comfortable. "You mean to say, then, my dear Monsieur la
Ramee ---- "
"That unless Monsieur de Beaufort can contrive to
metamorphose himself into a little bird, I will continue
answerable for him."
"Take care! you assert a great deal," said Mazarin.
"Monsieur de Beaufort told the guards who took him to
Vincennes that he had often thought what he should do in
case he were put into prison, and that he had found out
forty ways of escaping."
"My lord, if among these forty there had been one good way
he would have been out long ago."
"Come, come; not such a fool as I fancied!" thought Mazarin.
"Besides, my lord must remember that Monsieur de Chavigny is
governor of Vincennes," continued La Ramee, "and that
Monsieur de Chavigny is not friendly to Monsieur de
Beaufort."
"Yes, but Monsieur de Chavigny is sometimes absent."
"When he is absent I am there."
"But when you leave him, for instance?"
"Oh! when I leave him, I place in my stead a bold fellow who
aspires to be his majestys special guard. I promise you he
keeps a good watch over the prisoner. During the three weeks
that he has been with me, I have only had to reproach him
with one thing -- being too severe with the prisoners."
"And who is this Cerberus?"
"A certain Monsieur Grimaud, my lord."
"And what was he before he went to Vincennes?"
"He was in the country, as I was told by the person who
recommended him to me."
"And who recommended this man to you?"
"The steward of the Duc de Grammont."
"He is not a gossip, I hope?"
"Lord a mercy, my lord! I thought for a long time that he
was dumb; he answers only by signs. It seems his former
master accustomed him to that."
"Well, dear Monsieur la Ramee," replied the cardinal "let
him prove a true and thankful keeper and we will shut our
eyes upon his rural misdeeds and put on his back a uniform
to make him respectable, and in the pockets of that uniform
some pistoles to drink to the kings health."
Mazarin was large in promises, -- quite unlike the virtuous
Monsieur Grimaud so bepraised by La Ramee; for he said
nothing and did much.
It was now nine oclock. The cardinal, therefore, got up,
perfumed himself, dressed, and went to the queen to tell her
what had detained him. The queen, who was scarcely less
afraid of Monsieur de Beaufort than the cardinal himself,
and who was almost as superstitious as he was, made him
repeat word for word all La Ramees praises of his deputy.
Then, when the cardinal had ended:
"Alas, sir! why have we not a Grimaud near every prince?"
"Patience!" replied Mazarin, with his Italian smile; "that
may happen one day; but in the meantime ---- "
"Well, in the meantime?"
"I shall still take precautions."
And he wrote to DArtagnan to hasten his return.
17
Describes how the Duc de Beaufort amused his Leisure
Twenty Years Later page 59 Twenty Years Later page 61 |
