"Alexandre Dumas. Twenty Years After." - читать интересную книгу автора

"I admit it."
"Well, this is what actually took place: One evening after an orgy in
Reinard's apartment at the Tuileries with the Duc d'Harcourt, Fontrailles,
De Rieux and others, the Duc d'Harcourt proposed that we should go and pull
cloaks on the Pont Neuf; that is, you know, a diversion which the Duc
d'Orleans made quite the fashion."
"Were you crazy, Rochefort? at your age!"
"No, I was drunk. And yet, since the amusement seemed to me rather
tame, I proposed to Chevalier de Rieux that we should be spectators instead
of actors, and, in order to see to advantage, that we should mount the
bronze horse. No sooner said than done. Thanks to the spurs, which served
as stirrups, in a moment we were perched upon the croupe; we were well
placed and saw everything. Four or five cloaks had already been lifted,
with a dexterity without parallel, and not one of the victims had dared to
say a word, when some fool of a fellow, less patient than the others, took
it into his head to cry out, `Guard!' and drew upon us a patrol of archers.
Duc d'Harcourt, Fontrailles, and the others escaped; De Rieux was inclined
to do likewise, but I told him they wouldn't look for us where we were. He
wouldn't listen, put his foot on the spur to get down, the spur broke, he
fell with a broken leg, and, instead of keeping quiet, took to crying out
like a gallows-bird. I then was ready to dismount, but it was too late; I
descended into the arms of the archers. They conducted me to the Chatelet,
where I slept soundly, being very sure that on the next day I should go
forth free. The next day came and passed, the day after, a week; I then
wrote to the cardinal. The same day they came for me and took me to the
Bastile. That was five years ago. Do you believe it was because I committed
the sacrilege of mounting en croupe behind Henry IV.?"
"No; you are right, my dear Rochefort, it couldn't be for that; but
you will probably learn the reason soon."
"Ah, indeed! I forgot to ask you-where are you taking me?"
"To the cardinal."
"What does he want with me?"
"I do not know. I did not even know that you were the person I was
sent to fetch."
"Impossible-you-a favorite of the minister!"
"A favorite! no, indeed!" cried D'Artagnan. "Ah, my poor friend! I am
just as poor a Gascon as when I saw you at Meung, twenty-two years ago, you
know; alas!" and he concluded his speech with a deep sigh.
"Nevertheless, you come as one in authority."
"Because I happened to be in the ante-chamber when the cardinal called
me, by the merest chance. I am still a lieutenant in the musketeers and
have been so these twenty years."
"Then no misfortune has happened to you?"
"And what misfortune could happen to me? To quote some Latin verses I
have forgotten, or rather, never knew well, `the thunderbolt never falls on
the valleys,' and I am a valley, dear Rochefort,-one of the lowliest of the
low."
"Then Mazarin is still Mazarin?"
"The same as ever, my friend; it is said that he is married to the
queen."