Part 4 (1/2)
”'The letter you see down there; the last letter from the queen'
”At this word I trembled My tutor--he who passed forme modesty and humility--in correspondence with the queen!
”'The queen's last letter!' cried Perronnette, without showingthis letter at the bottom of the well; 'but how caular chance I was enteringopen, a puff of air came suddenly and carried off this paper--this letter of her ained thejust in time to see it flutter a moment in the breeze and disappear down the well'
”'Well,' said Dame Perronnette; 'and if the letter has fallen into the well, 'tis all the same as if it was burnt; and as the queen burns all her letters every time she comes--'
”And so you see this lady who came every month was the queen,” said the prisoner
”'Doubtless, doubtless,' continued the old gentleman; 'but this letter contained instructions--how can I follow theive her a plain account of the accident, and the queen will no doubt write you another letter in place of this'
”'Oh! the queen would never believe the story,' said the good gentleine that I want to keep this letter instead of giving it up like the rest, so as to have a hold over her
She is so distrustful, and M de Mazarin so--Yon devil of an Italian is capable of having us poisoned at the first breath of suspicion'”
Aramis almost imperceptibly smiled
”'You know, Dame Perronnette, they are both so suspicious in all that concerns Philippe'
”Philippe was the naave ,' said Dao down the well'
”'Of course; so that the person who goes downup'
”'But let us choose soer who cannot read, and then you will be at ease'
”'Granted; but will not any one who descends guess that a paper must be iiven o down the well, but that somebody shall be myself'
”But at this notion Dame Perronnette lamented and cried in such a manner, and so implored the old nobleman, with tears in her eyes, that he proh to reach dohile she went in search of some stout-hearted youth, whom she was to persuade that a jewel had fallen into the well, and that this jerapped in a paper 'And as paper,' re , after all, but the letter wide open'
”'But perhaps the writing will be already effaced by that time,' said Dame Perronnette
”'No consequence, provided we secure the letter On returning it to the queen, she will see at once that we have not betrayed her; and consequently, as we shall not rouse the distrust of Mazarin, we shall have nothing to fear fro come to this resolution, they parted I pushed back the shutter, and, seeing that my tutor was about to re-enter, I threw myself on my couch, in a confusion of brain caused by all I had just heard My governor opened the door a few ain As soon as ever it was shut, I rose, and, listening, heard the sound of retiring footsteps Then I returned to the shutters, and saw ether I was alone in the house They had hardly closed the gate before I sprang froovernor had leaned over, so leaned I Soreen and quivering silence of the water The brilliant disk fascinated and allured me; my eyes became fixed, and I could hardly breathe The well seemed to draw ht I read, at the bottom of the water, characters of fire traced upon the letter the queen had touched Then, scarcely knohat I was about, and urged on by one of those instinctive impulses which drive men to destruction, I lowered the cord from the windlass of the well to within about three feet of the water, leaving the bucket dangling, at the sa infinite pains not to disturb that coveted letter, which was beginning to change its white tint for the hue of chrysoprase,--proof enough that it was sinking,--and then, with the rope weltering inover the dark pool, when I saw the sky lessening above ot the better of iddiness, and the hair rose on ned supreained the water, and at once plunged into it, holding on by one hand, while I immersed the other and seized the dear letter, which, alas! caainst the sides of the pit, and clinging on with orous as I was, and, above all, pressed for ti it as I touched it with the water that streamed off me I was no sooner out of the ith e in a kind of shrubbery at the botto-place, the bell which resounded when the great gate was opened, rang It was ain I had but just time I calculated that it would take ten ainwhere I was, he caed to look for h to allowwas already fading, but I ed to decipher it all
”And will you tell neur?” asked Arah, monsieur, to see that my tutor was aa lady of quality, was far better than a servant; and also to perceived that I h-born, since the queen, Anne of Austria, and Mazarin, the prime minister, co man paused, quite overcome
”And what happened?” asked Aramis
”It happened, monsieur,” answered he, ”that the work in the well, after the closest search; that overnor perceived that the brink was all watery; that I was not so dried by the sun as to prevent Daarments were moist; and, lastly, that I was seized with a violent fever, owing to the chill and the excite, during which I related the whole adventure; so that, guided by overnor found the pieces of the queen's letter inside the bolster where I had concealed them”
”Ah!” said Aramis, ”now I understand”