Essential Novelists - Alexandre Dumas. Alexandre Dumas

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СКАЧАТЬ you say the procurator’s wife is old and ugly?”

      “Fifty at least, monsieur, and not at all handsome, according to Pathaud’s account.”

      “In that case, you may be quite at ease; she will soon be softened. Besides, Porthos cannot owe you much.”

      “How, not much! Twenty good pistoles, already, without reckoning the doctor. He denies himself nothing; it may easily be seen he has been accustomed to live well.”

      “Never mind; if his mistress abandons him, he will find friends, I will answer for it. So, my dear host, be not uneasy, and continue to take all the care of him that his situation requires.”

      “Monsieur has promised me not to open his mouth about the procurator’s wife, and not to say a word of the wound?”

      “That’s agreed; you have my word.”

      “Oh, he would kill me!”

      “Don’t be afraid; he is not so much of a devil as he appears.”

      Saying these words, d’Artagnan went upstairs, leaving his host a little better satisfied with respect to two things in which he appeared to be very much interested—his debt and his life.

      At the top of the stairs, upon the most conspicuous door of the corridor, was traced in black ink a gigantic number “1.” d’Artagnan knocked, and upon the bidding to come in which came from inside, he entered the chamber.

      Porthos was in bed, and was playing a game at LANSQUENET with Mousqueton, to keep his hand in; while a spit loaded with partridges was turning before the fire, and on each side of a large chimneypiece, over two chafing dishes, were boiling two stewpans, from which exhaled a double odor of rabbit and fish stews, rejoicing to the smell. In addition to this he perceived that the top of a wardrobe and the marble of a commode were covered with empty bottles.

      At the sight of his friend, Porthos uttered a loud cry of joy; and Mousqueton, rising respectfully, yielded his place to him, and went to give an eye to the two stewpans, of which he appeared to have the particular inspection.

      “Ah, PARDIEU! Is that you?” said Porthos to d’Artagnan. “You are right welcome. Excuse my not coming to meet you; but,” added he, looking at d’Artagnan with a certain degree of uneasiness, “you know what has happened to me?”

      “No.”

      “Has the host told you nothing, then?”

      “I asked after you, and came up as soon as I could.”

      Porthos seemed to breathe more freely.

      “And what has happened to you, my dear Porthos?” continued d’Artagnan.

      “Why, on making a thrust at my adversary, whom I had already hit three times, and whom I meant to finish with the fourth, I put my foot on a stone, slipped, and strained my knee.”

      “Truly?”

      “Honor! Luckily for the rascal, for I should have left him dead on the spot, I assure you.”

      “And what has became of him?”

      “Oh, I don’t know; he had enough, and set off without waiting for the rest. But you, my dear d’Artagnan, what has happened to you?”

      “So that this strain of the knee,” continued d’Artagnan, “my dear Porthos, keeps you in bed?”

      “My God, that’s all. I shall be about again in a few days.”

      “Why did you not have yourself conveyed to Paris? You must be cruelly bored here.”

      “That was my intention; but, my dear friend, I have one thing to confess to you.”

      “What’s that?”

      “It is that as I was cruelly bored, as you say, and as I had the seventy-five pistoles in my pocket which you had distributed to me, in order to amuse myself I invited a gentleman who was traveling this way to walk up, and proposed a cast of dice. He accepted my challenge, and, my faith, my seventy-five pistoles passed from my pocket to his, without reckoning my horse, which he won into the bargain. But you, my dear d’Artagnan?”

      “What can you expect, my dear Porthos; a man is not privileged in all ways,” said d’Artagnan. “You know the proverb ‘Unlucky at play, lucky in love.’ You are too fortunate in your love for play not to take its revenge. What consequence can the reverses of fortune be to you? Have you not, happy rogue that you are—have you not your duchess, who cannot fail to come to your aid?”

      “Well, you see, my dear d’Artagnan, with what ill luck I play,” replied Porthos, with the most careless air in the world. “I wrote to her to send me fifty louis or so, of which I stood absolutely in need on account of my accident.”

      “Well?”

      “Well, she must be at her country seat, for she has not answered me.”

      “Truly?”

      “No; so I yesterday addressed another epistle to her, still more pressing than the first. But you are here, my dear fellow, let us speak of you. I confess I began to be very uneasy on your account.”

      “But your host behaves very well toward you, as it appears, my dear Porthos,” said d’Artagnan, directing the sick man’s attention to the full stewpans and the empty bottles.

      “So, so,” replied Porthos. “Only three or four days ago the impertinent jackanapes gave me his bill, and I was forced to turn both him and his bill out of the door; so that I am here something in the fashion of a conqueror, holding my position, as it were, my conquest. So you see, being in constant fear of being forced from that position, I am armed to the teeth.”

      “And yet,” said d’Artagnan, laughing, “it appears to me that from time to time you must make SORTIES.” And he again pointed to the bottles and the stewpans.

      “Not I, unfortunately!” said Porthos. “This miserable strain confines me to my bed; but Mousqueton forages, and brings in provisions. Friend Mousqueton, you see that we have a reinforcement, and we must have an increase of supplies.”

      “Mousqueton,” said d’Artagnan, “you must render me a service.”

      “What, monsieur?”

      “You must give your recipe to Planchet. I may be besieged in my turn, and I shall not be sorry for him to be able to let me enjoy the same advantages with which you gratify your master.”

      “Lord, monsieur! There is nothing more easy,” said Mousqueton, with a modest air. “One only needs to be sharp, that’s all. I was brought up in the country, and my father in his leisure time was something of a poacher.”

      “And what did he do the rest of his time?”

      “Monsieur, he carried on a trade which I have always thought satisfactory.”

      “Which?”

      “As СКАЧАТЬ