D'Artagnan, the King Maker — page 257: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

240 His Own Host. church square. I wonder if that negress cook is still carrying on her trade as a war device? To drug a whole city! No, her lord, Don Pedro, is too high for that low trick. How drowsy I feel, since I partook of her Italian wine! “T trust my brother musketeer does not again come to crossing swords with our host! ‘He is less delicate than I am, if he could continue his court to the fair Jacinta over a fraternal corpse. They might use strong language to each other—real brothers will abuse at times—some are so jealous of their sisters—but words! bubbles on the breaker! a fig for them! “*Words are but wind— Swords are unkind!’ “Well-a-way! a smooth life flattens out wrinkles! And still nobody comes to town—Don Pedro or Don Juan! D’Artagnan or the count! Not a shot, not a shout! a fine thing if this revolution, lovely in its bud, comes to no blow! ‘That Braganza will leave” us to roast in the fire! Zounds, I am not a pagan, but lI fear that my memory is so bad that if the Inquisition should put me to the test, I should gabble a camp ballad for a canticle, and not so much piety could be sweated out of me as to save me from ‘the San Benito cap! “A finer thing yet, to leave my verdant Vallon, my blooming Bracieux, and my peaceful Pierrefonds, all to be toasted at a stake in the Madrid Plaza Real—that cold burlesque of the Place Royale! Ah, life, life, we like you the better the older we grow!” At noon the streets were very bright for the season; only on the sheltered side a few passengers wandered, muffled up to the eyes, and carrying weapons under the folds if they intended to defend the city, or valuables if they sought flight. “T believe I shall be left alone here to await the Pre- tender,” groaned the lonely one. “I will have it made into a carving to set over my mantelpiece: ‘The Lord of du Vallon, as grandee of Portugual, opening, single- handed, the Lisbon Gates to King Juan IV.’ ” Happily, just when he had determined, at all risks, and in the teeth of the injunction to stay still, to quit GEomichooksscom