List Of Contents | Contents of The Vicomte de Bragelonne, by Alexandre Dumas, Pere
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natured glance at the magnificent Chateau de Vaux, which was beginning to
shine with that splendor which brought on its ruin, and, compressing his
lips like a man full of mistrust and suspicion, he put spurs to his pied
horse, saying, "Well, well!  I have still Pierrefonds left, and there I
shall find the best man and the best filled coffer.  And that is all I
want, for I have an idea of my own."

We will spare our readers the prosaic incidents of D'Artagnan's journey,
which terminated on the morning of the third day within sight of
Pierrefonds.  D'Artagnan came by the way of Nanteuil-le-Haudouin and
Crepy.  At a distance he perceived the Castle of Louis of Orleans, which,
having become part of the crown domain, was kept by an old _concierge_.
This was one of those marvelous manors of the middle ages, with walls
twenty feet in thickness, and a hundred in height.

D'Artagnan rode slowly past its walls, measured its towers with his eye
and descended into the valley.  From afar he looked down upon the chateau
of Porthos, situated on the shores of a small lake, and contiguous to a
magnificent forest.  It was the same place we have already had the honor
of describing to our readers; we shall therefore satisfy ourselves with
naming it.  The first thing D'Artagnan perceived after the fine trees,
the May sun gilding the sides of the green hills, the long rows of
feather-topped trees which stretched out towards Compiegne, was a large
rolling box, pushed forward by two servants and dragged by two others.
In this box there was an enormous green-and-gold thing, which went along
the smiling glades of the park, thus dragged and pushed.  This thing, at
a distance, could not be distinguished, and signified absolutely nothing;
nearer, it was a hogshead muffled in gold-bound green cloth; when close,
it was a man, or rather a _poussa_, the inferior extremity of whom,
spreading over the interior of the box, entirely filled it; when still
closer, the man was Mousqueton - Mousqueton, with gray hair and a face as
red as Punchinello's.

"_Pardieu!_" cried D'Artagnan; "why, that's my dear Monsieur Mousqueton!"

"Ah!" cried the fat man - "ah! what happiness! what joy!  There's M.
d'Artagnan.  Stop, you rascals!"  These last words were addressed to the
lackeys who pushed and dragged him.  The box stopped, and the four
lackeys, with a precision quite military, took off their laced hats and
ranged themselves behind it.

"Oh, Monsieur d'Artagnan!" said Mousqueton, "why can I not embrace your
knees?  But I have become impotent, as you see."

"_Dame!_ my dear Mousqueton, it is age."

"No, monsieur, it is not age; it is infirmities - troubles."

"Troubles! you, Mousqueton?" said D'Artagnan, making the tour of the box;
"are you out of your mind, my dear friend?  Thank God! you are as hearty
as a three-hundred-year-old oak."

"Ah! but my legs, monsieur, my legs!" groaned the faithful servant.

"What's the matter with your legs?"

"Oh, they will no longer bear me!"

"Ah, the ungrateful things!  And yet you feed them well, Mousqueton,
apparently."

"Alas, yes!  They can reproach me with nothing in that respect," said
Mousqueton, with a sigh; "I have always done what I could for my poor
body; I am not selfish."  And Mousqueton sighed afresh.

"I wonder whether Mousqueton wants to be a baron, too, as he sighs after
that fashion?" thought D'Artagnan.

"_Mon Dieu_, monsieur!" said Mousqueton, as if rousing himself from a
painful reverie; "how happy monseigneur will be that you have thought of
him!"

"Kind Porthos!" cried D'Artagnan, "I am anxious to embrace him."

"Oh!" said Mousqueton, much affected, "I shall certainly write to him."

"What!" cried D'Artagnan, "you will write to him?"

"This very day; I shall not delay it an hour."

"Is he not here, then?"

"No, monsieur."

"But is he near at hand? - is he far off?"

"Oh, can I tell, monsieur, can I tell?"

"_Mordioux!_" cried the musketeer, stamping with his foot, "I am
unfortunate.  Porthos is such a stay-at-home!"

"Monsieur, there is not a more sedentary man that monseigneur, but - "

"But what?"

"When a friend presses you - "

"A friend?"

"Doubtless - the worthy M. d'Herblay."

"What, has Aramis pressed Porthos?"

"This is how the thing happened, Monsieur d'Artagnan.  M. d'Herblay wrote
to monseigneur - "

"Indeed!"

"A letter, monsieur, such a pressing letter that it threw us all into a
bustle."

"Tell me all about it, my dear friend," said D'Artagnan; "but remove
these people a little further off first."

Mousqueton shouted, "Fall back, you fellows," with such powerful lungs
that the breath, without the words, would have been sufficient to
disperse the four lackeys.  D'Artagnan seated himself on the shaft of the
box and opened his ears.  "Monsieur," said Mousqueton, "monseigneur,
then, received a letter from M. le Vicaire-General d'Herblay, eight or
nine days ago; it was the day of the rustic pleasures, yes, it must have
been Wednesday."

"What do you mean?" said D'Artagnan.  "The day of rustic pleasures?"

"Yes, monsieur; we have so many pleasures to take in this delightful
country, that we were encumbered by them; so much so, that we have been
forced to regulate the distribution of them."

"How easily do I recognize Porthos's love of order in that!  Now, that
idea would never have occurred to me; but then I am not encumbered with
pleasures."

"We were, though," said Mousqueton.

"And how did you regulate the matter, let me know?" said D'Artagnan.

"It is rather long, monsieur."

"Never mind, we have plenty of time; and you speak so well, my dear
Mousqueton, that it is really a pleasure to hear you."

"It is true," said Mousqueton, with a sigh of satisfaction, which
emanated evidently from the justice which had been rendered him, "it is
true I have made great progress in the company of monseigneur."

"I am waiting for the distribution of the pleasures, Mousqueton, and with
impatience.  I want to know if I have arrived on a lucky day."

"Oh, Monsieur d'Artagnan," said Mousqueton in a melancholy tone, "since
monseigneur's departure all the pleasures have gone too!"

"Well, my dear Mousqueton, refresh your memory."

"With what day shall I begin?"

"Eh, _pardieux!_ begin with Sunday; that is the Lord's day."

"Sunday, monsieur?"

"Yes."

"Sunday pleasures are religious: monseigneur goes to mass, makes the
bread-offering, and has discourses and instructions made to him by his
almoner-in-ordinary.  That is not very amusing, but we expect a Carmelite
from Paris who will do the duty of our almonry, and who, we are assured,
speaks very well, which will keep us awake, whereas our present almoner
always sends us to sleep.  These are Sunday religious pleasures.  On
Monday, worldly pleasures."

"Ah, ah!" said D'Artagnan, "what do you mean by that?  Let us have a
glimpse at your worldly pleasures."

"Monsieur, on Monday we go into the world; we pay and receive visits, we
play on the lute, we dance, we make verses, and burn a little incense in
honor of the ladies."

"_Peste!_ that is the height of gallantry," said the musketeer, who was
obliged to call to his aid all the strength of his facial muscles to
suppress an enormous inclination to laugh.

"Tuesday, learned pleasures."

"Good!" cried D'Artagnan.  "What are they?  Detail them, my dear
Mousqueton."

"Monseigneur has bought a sphere or globe, which I shall show you; it
fills all the perimeter of the great tower, except a gallery which he has
had built over the sphere: there are little strings and brass wires to
which the sun and moon are hooked.  It all turns; and that is very
beautiful.  Monseigneur points out to me the seas and distant countries.
We don't intend to visit them, but it is very interesting."

"Interesting! yes, that's the word," repeated D'Artagnan.  "And
Wednesday?"

"Rustic pleasures, as I have had the honor to tell you, monsieur le
chevalier.  We look over monseigneur's sheep and goats; we make the
shepherds dance to pipes and reeds, as is written in a book monseigneur
has in his library, which is called 'Bergeries.'  The author died about a
month ago."

"Monsieur Racan, perhaps," said D'Artagnan.

"Yes, that was his name - M. Racan.  But that is not all: we angle in the
little canal, after which we dine, crowned with flowers.  That is
Wednesday."


"_Peste!_" said D'Artagnan; "you don't divide your pleasures badly.  And
Thursday? - what can be left for poor Thursday?"

"It is not very unfortunate, monsieur," said Mousqueton, smiling.
"Thursday, Olympian pleasures.  Ah, monsieur, that is superb!  We get
together all monseigneur's young vassals, and we make them throw the
disc, wrestle, and run races.  Monseigneur can't run now, no more can I;
but monseigneur throws the disc as nobody else can throw it.  And when he
does deal a blow, oh, that proves a misfortune!"

"How so?"

"Yes, monsieur, we were obliged to renounce the cestus.  He cracked
heads; he broke jaws - beat in ribs.  It was charming sport; but nobody
was willing to play with him."

"Then his wrist - "

"Oh, monsieur, firmer than ever.  Monseigneur gets a trifle weaker in his
legs, - he confesses that himself; but his strength has all taken refuge
in his arms, so that - "

"So that he can knock down bullocks, as he used to formerly."

"Monsieur, better than that - he beats in walls.  Lately, after having
supped with one of our farmers - you know how popular and kind
monseigneur is - after supper, as a joke, he struck the wall a blow.  The
wall crumbled away beneath his hand, the roof fell in, and three men and
an old woman were stifled."

"Good God, Mousqueton!  And your master?"

"Oh, monseigneur, a little skin was rubbed off his head.  We bathed the
wounds with some water which the monks gave us.  But there was nothing
the matter with his hand."

"Nothing?"

"No, nothing, monsieur."

"Deuce take the Olympic pleasures!  They must cost your master too dear;
for widows and orphans - "

"They all had pensions, monsieur; a tenth of monseigneur's revenue was
spent in that way."

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