Part 5 (1/2)
”Very nearly”
”This also was done by design, then; just as they deprived you of norance of history, which reflects the past Since your imprisonment, books have been forbidden you; so that you are unacquainted with a number of facts, by means of which you would be able to reconstruct the shattered mansion of your recollections and your hopes”
”It is true,” said the young man
”Listen, then; I will in a feords tell you what has passed in France during the last twenty-three or twenty-four years; that is, from the probable date of your birth; in a word, fro man resumed his serious and attentive attitude
”Do you knoas the son of Henry IV?”
”At least I knoho his successor was”
”How?”
”By y of Henry IV; and another of 1612, bearing that of Louis XIII So I presu only two years between the two dates, Louis was Henry's successor”
”Then,” said Ara monarch was Louis XIII?”
”I do,” answered the youth, slightly reddening
”Well, he was a prince full of noble ideas and great projects, always, alas! deferred by the trouble of the tile that his reat nobles of France The king hi and unhappy”
”I know it”
”He had been long anxious about having a heir; a care which weighs heavily on princes, who desire to leave behind thehts and works will be continued”
”Did the king, then, die childless?” asked the prisoner, s while thought he should be the last of his race This idea had reduced him to the depths of despair, when suddenly, his wife, Anne of Austria--”
The prisoner trembled
”Did you know,” said Aramis, ”that Louis XIII's as called Anne of Austria?”
”Continue,” said the youngto the question
”When suddenly,” resu event There was great joy at the intelligence, and all prayed for her happy delivery On the 5th of Septeave birth to a son”
Here Araht he observed hi pale ”You are about to hear,” said Aramis, ”an account which few indeed could now avouch; for it refers to a secret which they iined buried with the dead, entombed in the abyss of the confessional”
”And you will tell me this secret?” broke in the youth
”Oh!” said Araht to risk this secret by intrusting it to one who has no desire to quit the Bastile”