Read Online Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas - Free Book Online Page B

was too grand to promise anything; he purposed only to do all that he could to increase the glory of his name.
    As to that, we know D'Artagnan's courage; he exposed himself freely to danger and while charging at the head of his company he received a ball through the chest which laid him prostrate on the field of battle. He had been seen falling from his horse and had not been seen to rise; every one, therefore, believed him to be dead, especially those to whom his death would give promotion. One believes readily what he wishes to believe. Now in the army, from the division–generals who desire the death of the general–in–chief, to the soldiers who desire the death of the corporals, all desire some one's death.
    But D'Artagnan was not a man to let himself be killed like that. After he had remained through the heat of the day unconscious on the battle–field, the cool freshness of the night brought him to himself. He gained a village, knocked at the door of the finest house and was received as the wounded are always and everywhere received in France. He was petted, tended, cured; and one fine morning, in better health than ever before, he set out for France. Once in France he turned his course toward Paris, and reaching Paris went straight to Rue Tiquetonne.
    But D'Artagnan found in his chamber the personal equipment of a man, complete, except for the sword, arranged along the wall.
    "He has returned," said he. "So much the worse, and so much the better!"
    It need not be said that D'Artagnan was still thinking of the husband. He made inquiries and discovered that the servants were new and that the mistress had gone for a walk.
    "Alone?" asked D'Artagnan.
    "With monsieur."
    "Monsieur has returned, then?"
    "Of course," naively replied the servant.
    "If I had any money," said D'Artagnan to himself, "I would go away; but I have none. I must stay and follow the advice of my hostess, while thwarting the conjugal designs of this inopportune apparition."
    He had just completed this monologue—which proves that in momentous circumstances nothing is more natural than the monologue—when the servant–maid, watching at the door, suddenly cried out:
    "Ah! see! here is madame returning with monsieur."
    D'Artagnan looked out and at the corner of Rue Montmartre saw the hostess coming along hanging to the arm of an enormous Swiss, who tiptoed in his walk with a magnificent air which pleasantly reminded him of his old friend Porthos.
    "Is that monsieur?" said D'Artagnan to himself. "Oh! oh! he has grown a good deal, it seems to me." And he sat down in the hall, choosing a conspicuous place.
    The hostess, as she entered, saw D'Artagnan and uttered a little cry, whereupon D'Artagnan, judging that he had been recognized, rose, ran to her and embraced her tenderly. The Swiss, with an air of stupefaction, looked at the hostess, who turned pale.
    "Ah, it is you, monsieur! What do you want of me?" she asked, in great distress.
    "Is monsieur your cousin? Is monsieur your brother?" said D'Artagnan, not in the slightest degree embarrassed in the role he was playing. And without waiting for her reply he threw himself into the arms of the Helvetian, who received him with great coldness.
    "Who is that man?" he asked.
    The hostess replied only by gasps.
    "Who is that Swiss?" asked D'Artagnan.
    "Monsieur is going to marry me," replied the hostess, between two gasps.
    "Your husband, then, is at last dead?"
    "How does that concern you?" replied the Swiss.
    "It concerns me much," said D'Artagnan, "since you cannot marry madame without my consent and since——"
    "And since?" asked the Swiss.
    "And since—I do not give it," said the musketeer.
    The Swiss became as purple as a peony. He wore his elegant uniform, D'Artagnan was wrapped in a sort of gray cloak; the Swiss was six feet high, D'Artagnan was hardly more than five; the Swiss considered himself on his own ground and regarded D'Artagnan as an intruder.
    "Will you go away from here?" demanded the