Part 26 (1/2)
La Ra theone shut all the doors, put the keys in his pocket and showed the table to the prince with an air that signified: ”Whenever my lord pleases”
The prince looked at Grimaud, Grimaud looked at the clock; it was hardly a quarter-past six The escape was fixed to take place at seven o'clock; there was therefore three-quarters of an hour to wait
The duke, in order to pass away another quarter of an hour, pretended to be reading so that interested him and muttered that he wished they would allow him to finish his chapter La Ramee went up to him and looked over his shoulder to see what sort of a book it was that had so singular an influence over the prisoner as tohis dinner
It was ”Caesar's Commentaries,” which La Raovernor; and La Raain to disobey these injunctions
Meantiood
At half-past six the duke arose and said very gravely: ”Certainly, Caesar was the greatest man of ancient times”
”You think so, my lord?” answered La Ramee
”Yes”
”Well, as for me, I prefer Hannibal”
”And why, pray, Master La Ramee?” asked the duke
”Because he left no Coh
The duke vouchsafed no reply, but sitting down at the table n that La Ra so expressive as the face of an epicure who finds hi his plate of soup from Grimaud, presented a type of perfect bliss
The duke smiled
”Zounds!” he said; ”I don't suppose there is a doht, my lord duke,” answered the officer; ”I don't know any pleasanter sight on earth than a well covered table; and when, added to that, he who does the honors is the grandson of Henry IV, you will, my lord duke, easily comprehend that the honor fairly doubles the pleasure one enjoys”
The duke, in his turn, bowed, and an imperceptible smile appeared on the face of Grimaud, who kept behind La Ramee
”My dear La Ramee,” said the duke, ”you are the only man to turn such faultless compliments”
”No, my lord duke,” replied La Ramee, in the fullness of his heart; ”I say what I think; there is no compliment in what I say to you----”
”Then you are attached to me?” asked the duke
”To own the truth, I should be inconsolable if you were to leave Vincennes”
”A droll way of showing your affliction” The duke meant to say ”affection”
”But, ot out? Every folly you committed would embroil you with the court and they would put you into the Bastile, instead of Vincennes Now, Monsieur de Chavigny is not amiable, I allow, but Monsieur du Tremblay is considerably worse”
”Indeed!” exclaimed the duke, who froers of which see slowness
”But what can you expect froht up in the school of Cardinal Richelieu? Ah, reat happiness that the queen, who alished you well, had a fancy to send you here, where there's a proood table”
”In short,” answered the duke, ”if I co ever thought of leaving this place?”
”Oh! hness has never seriously thought of it?”
”Yes,” returned the duke, ”I must confess I sometimes think of it”
”Still by one of your forty hness?”
”Yes, yes, indeed”
”My lord,” said La Ra ourselves, pray tell hness”
”Willingly,” answered the duke, ”giveback in his arlass of Madeira to his lips, and winking his eye that he h the rich liquid that he was about to taste
The duke glanced at the clock In ten minutes it would strike seven
Grimaud placed the pie before the duke, who took a knife with a silver blade to raise the upper crust; but La Ra to this fine work of art, passed his knife, which had an iron blade, to the duke
”Thank you, La Ramee,” said the prisoner
”Well, my lord! this famous invention of yours?”
”Must I tell you,” replied the duke, ”on what I most reckon and what I deter, aily
”Well, I should hope, in the first instance, to have for keeper an honest fellow like you”
”And you have , then, a keeper like La Ramee, I should try also to have introduced to him by some friend or other a man ould be devoted to ht”
”Come, come,” said La Ramee, ”that's not a bad idea”
”Capital, isn't it? for instance, the forentleht to be”
”Hush!+ don't let us talk politics, in to trust this man and to depend upon him, and I should have news from those without the prison walls”
”Ah, yes! but how can the news be brought to you?”
”Nothing easier; in a gaa more serious attention to the duke's words
”Yes; see, I send a ball into the moat; a man is there who picks it up; the ball contains a letter Instead of returning the ball to me when I call for it from the top of the wall, he throws me another; that other ball contains a letter Thus we have exchanged ideas and no one has seen us do it”