The valets brought in torches to illuminate the hall. That hurrah, the
sudden lights, the sensations caused by his father's speech, joined to
those he was already feeling, overcame the young man, who fainted
completely and fell into a chair, leaving his slender womanly hand in
the broad palm of his father. As the duke, who had signed to the
lieutenant of his company to come nearer, saying to him, "I am
fortunate, Baron d'Artagnon, in being able to repair my loss; behold
my son!" he felt an icy hand in his. Turning round, he looked at the
new Duc de Nivron, and, thinking him dead, he uttered a cry of horror
which appalled the assemblage.
Beauvouloir rushed to the platform, took the young man in his arms,
and carried him away, saying to his master, "You have killed him by
not preparing him for this ceremony."
"He can never have a child if he is like that!" cried the duke,
following Beauvouloir into the seignorial chamber, where the doctor
laid the young heir upon the bed.
"Well, what think you?" asked the duke presently.
"It is not serious," replied the old physician, showing Etienne, who
was now revived by a cordial, a few drops of which he had given him on
a bit of sugar, a new and precious substance which the apothecaries
were selling for its weight in gold.
Pages:
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114