Part 13 (1/2)
”Excellent, my dear friend; better than ever I could kill an ox with a blow of my fist”
”Well, then, family affairs, perhaps?”
”Family! I have, happily, only myself in the world to care for”
”But what h?”
”My dear fellow,” replied Porthos, ”to be candid with you, I am not happy”
”You are not happy, Porthos? You who have chateau, meadows, mountains, woods--you who have forty thousand francs a year--you--are--not--happy?”
”My dear friend, all those things I have, but I am a hermit in the midst of superfluity”
”Surrounded, I suppose, only by clodhoppers, hom you could not associate”
Porthos turned rather pale and drank off a large glass of wine
”No; but just think, there are paltry country squires who have all soo back as far as Charleh Capet When I first ca the last comer, it was for me to make the first advances I made them, but you know, my dear friend, Mada these words, see
”Madaentility She had, in her firstnew--ht that 'nauseous;' you can understand that's a word bad enough to make one kill thirty thousand ues, but has not made me their friend So that I have no society; I live alone; I anan smiled He nohere the breastplate eak, and prepared the blow
”But now,” he said, ”that you are a er, your wife's connection cannot injure you”
”Yes, but understandof a race of historic fame, like the De Courcys, ere content to be plain sirs, or the Rohans, who didn't wish to be dukes, all these people, who are all either vicoo beforeto them Ah! If I only were a----”
”A baron, don't youhis friend's sentence
”Ah!” cried Porthos; ”would I were but a baron!”
”Well, ive you this very title which you wish for so ave a start that shook the room; two or three bottles fell and were broken Mousqueton ran thither, hearing the noise
Porthos waved his hand to Mousqueton to pick up the bottles
”I anan, ”that you have still that honest lad with you”
”He is my steward,” replied Porthos; ”he will never leave me Go away now, Mouston”
”So he's called Mouston,” thought D'Artagnan; ”'tis too long a word to pronounce 'Mousqueton'”
”Well,” he said aloud, ”let us resu; there may be spies about You can suppose, Porthos, that what I have to say relates to most important matters”
”Devil take them; let us walk in the park,” answered Porthos, ”for the sake of digestion”
”Egad,” said D'Artagnan, ”the park is like everything else and there are as many fish in your pond as rabbits in your warren; you are a happy man, my friend since you have not only retained your love of the chase, but acquired that of fishi+ng”
”My friend,” replied Porthos, ”I leave fishi+ng to Mousqueton,--it is a vulgar pleasure,--but I shoot sometimes; that is to say, when I aun brought to , and I shoot rabbits”
”Really, how very ah, ”it is ahs They were innumerable
”However, what had you to say to me?” he resumed; ”let us return to that subject”
”With pleasure,” replied D'Artagnan; ”I e your ird on your sword, run after adventures, and leave as in old ti it!” said Porthos
”I see you are spoiled, dear friend; you are corpulent, your aruards have so h I swear,” cried Porthos, extending a hand like a shoulder of o to war?”
”By ainst whom?”
”Are you a politician, friend?”
”Not in the least”
”Are you for Mazarin or for the princes?”
”I am for no one”
”That is to say, you are for us Well, I tell you that I come to you from the cardinal”
This speech was heard by Porthos in the same sense as if it had still been in the year 1640 and related to the true cardinal
”Ho! ho! What are the wishes of his eminence?”
”He wishes to have you in his service”
”And who spoke to him of me?”
”Rochefort--you reave us so ave hiements”
”But you know he is now our friend?”