The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas (the beginning after the end novel read txt) ๐
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- Author: Alexandre Dumas
Read book online ยซThe Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas (the beginning after the end novel read txt) ๐ยป. Author - Alexandre Dumas
โIt is strange,โ thought he, โwhence comes the inclination I feel to embrace Porthos once more?โ At that moment Porthos turned round, and he came towards his old friend with open arms. This last endearment was tender as in youth, as in times when hearts were warmโlife happy. And then Porthos mounted his horse. Aramis came back once more to throw his arms round the neck of Athos. The latter watched them along the high-road, elongated by the shade, in their white cloaks. Like phantoms they seemed to enlarge on their departure from the earth, and it was not in the mist, but in the declivity of the ground that they disappeared. At the end of the perspective, both seemed to have given a spring with their feet, which made them vanish as if evaporated into cloud-land.
Then Athos, with a very heavy heart, returned towards the house, saying to Bragelonne, โRaoul, I donโt know what it is that has just told me that I have seen those two for the last time.โ
โIt does not astonish me, monsieur, that you should have such a thought,โ replied the young man, โfor I have at this moment the same, and think also that I shall never see Messieurs du Vallon and dโHerblay again.โ
โOh! you,โ replied the count, โyou speak like a man rendered sad by a different cause; you see everything in black; you are young, and if you chance never to see those old friends again, it will because they no longer exist in the world in which you have yet many years to pass. But Iโโ
Raoul shook his head sadly, and leaned upon the shoulder of the count, without either of them finding another word in their hearts, which were ready to overflow.
All at once a noise of horses and voices, from the extremity of the road to Blois, attracted their attention that way. Flambeaux-bearers shook their torches merrily among the trees of their route, and turned round, from time to time, to avoid distancing the horsemen who followed them. These flames, this noise, this dust of a dozen richly caparisoned horses, formed a strange contrast in the middle of the night with the melancholy and almost funereal disappearance of the two shadows of Aramis and Porthos. Athos went towards the house; but he had hardly reached the parterre, when the entrance gate appeared in a blaze; all the flambeaux stopped and appeared to enflame the road. A cry was heard of โM. le Duc de Beaufortโโand Athos sprang towards the door of his house. But the duke had already alighted from his horse, and was looking around him.
โI am here, monseigneur,โ said Athos.
โAh! good evening, dear count,โ said the prince, with that frank cordiality which won him so many hearts. โIs it too late for a friend?โ
โAh! my dear prince, come in!โ said the count.
And, M. de Beaufort leaning on the arm of Athos, they entered the house, followed by Raoul, who walked respectfully and modestly among the officers of the prince, with several of whom he was acquainted.
Chapter XXVII. Monsieur de Beaufort.
The prince turned round at the moment when Raoul, in order to leave him alone with Athos, was shutting the door, and preparing to go with the other officers into an adjoining apartment.
โIs that the young man I have heard M. le Prince speak so highly of?โ asked M. de Beaufort.
โIt is, monseigneur.โ
โHe is quite the soldier; let him stay, count, we cannot spare him.โ
โRemain, Raoul, since monseigneur permits it,โ said Athos.
โMa foi! he is tall and handsome!โ continued the duke. โWill you give him to me, monseigneur, if I ask him of you?โ
โHow am I to understand you, monseigneur?โ said Athos.
โWhy, I call upon you to bid you farewell.โ
โFarewell!โ
โYes, in good truth. Have you no idea of what I am about to become?โ
โWhy, I suppose, what you have always been, monseigneur,โa valiant prince, and an excellent gentleman.โ
โI am going to become an African prince,โa Bedouin gentleman. The king is sending me to make conquests among the Arabs.โ
โWhat is this you tell me, monseigneur?โ
โStrange, is it not? I, the Parisian par essence, I who have reigned in the faubourgs, and have been called King of the Halles,โI am going to pass from the Place Maubert to the minarets of Gigelli; from a Frondeur I am becoming an adventurer!โ
โOh, monseigneur, if you did not yourself tell me thatโโ
โIt would not be credible, would it? Believe me, nevertheless, and we have but to bid each other farewell. This is what comes of getting into favor again.โ
โInto favor?โ
โYes. You smile. Ah, my dear count, do you know why I have accepted this enterprise, can you guess?โ
โBecause your highness loves glory aboveโeverything.โ
โOh! no; there is no glory in firing muskets at savages. I see no glory in that, for my part, and it is more probable that I shall there meet with something else. But I have wished, and still wish earnestly, my dear count, that my life should have that last facet, after all the whimsical exhibitions I have seen myself make during fifty years. For, in short, you must admit that it is sufficiently strange to be born the grandson of a king, to have made war against kings, to have been reckoned among the powers of the age, to have maintained my rank, to feel Henry IV. within me, to be great admiral of Franceโand then to go and get killed at Gigelli, among all those Turks, Saracens, and Moors.โ
โMonseigneur, you harp with strange persistence on that theme,โ said Athos, in an agitated voice. โHow can you suppose that so brilliant a destiny will be extinguished in that remote and miserable scene?โ
โAnd can you believe, upright and simple as you are, that if I go into Africa for this ridiculous motive, I will not endeavor to come out of it without ridicule? Shall I not give the world cause to speak of me? And to be spoken of, nowadays, when there are Monsieur le Prince, M. de Turenne, and many others, my contemporaries, I, admiral of France, grandson of Henry IV., king of Paris, have I anything left but to get myself killed? Cordieu! I will be talked of, I tell you; I shall be killed whether or not; if not there, somewhere else.โ
โWhy, monseigneur, this is mere exaggeration; and hitherto you have shown nothing exaggerated save in bravery.โ
โPeste! my dear friend, there is bravery in facing scurvy, dysentery, locusts, poisoned arrows, as my ancestor St. Louis did. Do you know those fellows still use poisoned
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