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

"I shouldn't wonder if he were at the head of the mob at this very
moment. He married a woman who keeps a confectioner's shop in the Rue des
Lombards, for he's a lad who was always fond of sweetmeats; he's now a
citizen of Paris. You'll see that that queer fellow will be a sheriff
before I shall be a captain."
"Come, dear D'Artagnan, look up a little! Courage! It is when one is
lowest on the wheel of fortune that the merry-go-round wheels and rewards
us. This evening your destiny begins to change."
"Amen!" exclaimed D'Artagnan, stopping the carriage.
"What are you doing?" asked Rochefort.
"We are almost there and I want no one to see me getting out of your
carriage; we are supposed not to know each other."
"You are right. Adieu."
"Au revoir. Remember your promise."
In five minutes the party entered the courtyard and D'Artagnan led the
prisoner up the great staircase and across the corridor and ante-chamber.
As they stopped at the door of the cardinal's study, D'Artagnan was
about to be announced when Rochefort slapped him on his shoulder.
"D'Artagnan, let me confess to you what I've been thinking about
during the whole of my drive, as I looked out upon the parties of citizens
who perpetually crossed our path and looked at you and your four men with
fiery eyes."
"Speak out," answered D'Artagnan.
"I had only to cry out `Help!' for you and for your companions to be
cut to pieces, and then I should have been free."
"Why didn't you do it?" asked the lieutenant.
"Come, come!" cried Rochefort. "Did we not swear friendship? Ah! had
any one but you been there, I don't say-"
D'Artagnan bowed. "Is it possible that Rochefort has become a better
man than I am?" he said to himself. And he caused himself to be announced
to the minister.
"Let M. de Rochefort enter," said Mazarin, eagerly, on hearing their
names pronounced; "and beg M. d'Artagnan to wait; I shall have further need
of him."
These words gave great joy to D'Artagnan. As he had said, it had been
a long time since any one had needed him; and that demand for his services
on the part of Mazarin seemed to him an auspicious sign.
Rochefort, rendered suspicious and cautious by these words, entered
the apartment, where he found Mazarin sitting at the table, dressed in his
ordinary garb and as one of the prelates of the Church, his costume being
similar to that of the abbes in that day, excepting that his scarf and
stockings were violet.
As the door was closed Rochefort cast a glance toward Mazarin, which
was answered by one, equally furtive, from the minister.
There was little change in the cardinal; still dressed with sedulous
care, his hair well arranged and curled, his person perfumed, he looked,
owing to his extreme taste in dress, only half his age. But Rochefort, who
had passed five years in prison, had become old in the lapse of a few
years; the dark locks of this estimable friend of the defunct Cardinal
Richelieu were now white; the deep bronze of his complexion had been