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The Three Musketeers
Twenty Years Later
The Vicomte De Bragelonne
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Twenty Years Later 89 at Prostate Health
signal with
them. It was indeed for him that they were there.
Grimaud, meantime, undid the means of escape.
This was not, however, a rope ladder, but a ball of silk
cord, with a narrow board which was to pass between the
legs, the ball to unwind itself by the weight of the person
who sat astride upon the board.
"Go!" said the duke.
"First, my lord?" inquired Grimaud.
"Certainly. If I am caught, I risk nothing but being taken
back again to prison. If they catch thee, thou wilt be
hung."
"True," replied Grimaud.
And instantly, Grimaud, sitting upon the board as if on
horseback, commenced his perilous descent.
The duke followed him with his eyes, with involuntary
terror. He had gone down about three-quarters of the length
of the wall when the cord broke. Grimaud fell --
precipitated into the moat.
The duke uttered a cry, but Grimaud did not give a single
moan. He must have been dreadfully hurt, for he did not stir
from the place where he fell.
Immediately one of the men who were waiting slipped down
into the moat, tied under Grimauds shoulders the end of a
cord, and the remaining two, who held the other end, drew
Grimaud to them.
"Descend, my lord," said the man in the moat. "There are
only fifteen feet more from the top down here, and the grass
is soft."
The duke had already begun to descend. His task was the more
difficult, as there was no board to support him. He was
obliged to let himself down by his hands and from a height
of fifty feet. But as we have said he was active, strong,
and full of presence of mind. In less than five minutes he
arrived at the end of the cord. He was then only fifteen
feet from the ground, as the gentlemen below had told him.
He let go the rope and fell upon his feet, without receiving
any injury.
He instantly began to climb up the slope of the moat, on the
top of which he met De Rochefort. The other two gentlemen
were unknown to him. Grimaud, in a swoon, was tied securely
to a horse.
"Gentlemen," said the duke, "I will thank you later; now we
have not a moment to lose. On, then! on! those who love me,
follow me!"
And he jumped on his horse and set off at full gallop,
snuffing the fresh air in his triumph and shouting out, with
an expression of face which it would be impossible to
describe:
"Free! free! free!"
24
The timely Arrival of DArtagnan in Paris.
At Blois, DArtagnan received the money paid to him by
Mazarin for any future service he might render the cardinal.
From Blois to Paris was a journey of four days for ordinary
travelers, but DArtagnan arrived on the third day at the
Barriere Saint Denis. In turning the corner of the Rue
Montmartre, in order to reach the Rue Tiquetonne and the
Hotel de la Chevrette, where he had appointed Porthos to
meet him, he saw at one of the windows of the hotel, that
friend himself dressed in a sky-blue waistcoat, embroidered
with silver, and gaping, till he showed every one of his
white teeth; whilst the people passing by admiringly gazed
at this gentleman, so handsome and so rich, who seemed to
weary of his riches and his greatness.
DArtagnan and Planchet had hardly turned the corner when
Porthos recognized them.
"Eh! DArtagnan!" he cried. "Thank God you have come!"
"Eh! good-day, dear friend!" replied DArtagnan.
Porthos came down at once to the threshold of the hotel.
"Ah, my dear friend!" he cried, "what bad stabling for my
horses here."
"Indeed!" said DArtagnan; "I am most unhappy to hear it, on
account of those fine animals."
"And I, also -- I was also wretchedly off," he answered,
moving backward and forward as he spoke; "and had it not
been for the hostess," he added, with his air of vulgar
self-complacency, "who is very agreeable and understands a
joke, I should have got a lodging elsewhere."
The pretty Madeleine, who had approached during this
colloquy, stepped back and turned pale as death on hearing
Porthoss words, for she thought the scene with the Swiss
was about to be repeated. But to her great surprise
DArtagnan remained perfectly calm, and instead of being
angry he laughed, and said to Porthos:
"Yes, I understand, the air of La Rue Tiquetonne is not like
that of Pierrefonds; but console yourself, I will soon
conduct you to one much better."
"When will you do that?"
"Immediately, I hope."
"Ah! so much the better!"
To that exclamation of Porthoss succeeded a groaning, low
and profound, which seemed to
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