Part 68 (1/2)
”Well! you would cease to love her”
”Then I anan”
”To set off to see her again?”
”No; to set off that I ain I wish to love her forever”
”Ha! I must confess,” replied the musketeer, ”that is a conclusion which I was far fro”
”This is what I wish, ive her a letter which, if you think proper, will explain to her, as to yourself, what is passing intold me I should see you to-day” He held the letter out, and D'Artagnan read:
”MADEMOISELLE,--You are not wrong in uilty of one fault towardsleft me to believe you loved me This error will cost me my life I pardon you, but I cannot pardon myself It is said that happy lovers are deaf to the sorrows of rejected lovers It will not be so with you, who did not love me, save with anxiety I ae that friendshi+p into love, you would have yielded out of a fear of bringing aboutthe esteehtful tothat _you_ are free and satisfied How er fear either my presence or reproaches? You will lovea new loveinferior to him you have chosen, and because my devotedness, my sacrifice, and my painful end will assure me, in your eyes, a certain superiority over him I have allowed to escape, in the candid credulity of my heart, the treasure I possessed Many people tell h to lead me to hope you would have loved me much That idea takes from my mind all bitterness, and leads me only to blame myself You will accept this last farewell, and you will bless e in the inviolable asyluuished, and where all love endures forever Adieu, mademoiselle
If your happiness could be purchased by the last drop of ly make the sacrifice of it to my misery!
”RAOUL, VICOTME DE BRAGELONNE”
”The letter reads very well,” said the captain ”I have only one fault to find with it”
”Tell me what that is!” said Raoul
”Why, it is that it tells everything, except the thing which exhales, like a mortal poison from your eyes and from your heart; except the senseless love which still consurew paler, but remained silent
”Why did you not write si you, I love you and I die'”
”That is true,” exclai the letter he had just taken back, he wrote the folloords upon a leaf of his tablets:
”To procure the happiness of onceto you; and to punish ned it
”You will give her these tablets, captain, will you not?”
”When?” asked the latter
”On the day,” said Bragelonne, pointing to the last sentence, ”on the day when you can place a date under these words” And he sprang away quickly to join Athos, as returning with slow steps
As they re-entered the fort, the sea rose with that rapid, gusty vehemence which characterizes the Mediterranean; the ill-hu shapeless, and tossed about violently by the waves, appeared just off the coast
”What is that?” said Athos,--”a wrecked boat?”
”No, it is not a boat,” said D'Artagnan