[The Vicomte de Bragelonne by Alexandre Dumas Pere]@TWC D-Link book
The Vicomte de Bragelonne

CHAPTER LXXIII
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He started up.

"Who goes there ?" cried he, in his giant's voice.
"Hush! hush! It is I," said Aramis.
"You, my friend?
And what the devil do you wake me for ?" "To tell you that you must set off directly." "Set off ?" "Yes." "Where for ?" "For Paris." Porthos bounded up in his bed, and then sank back down again, fixing his great eyes in agitation upon Aramis.
"For Paris ?" "Yes." "A hundred leagues ?" said he.
"A hundred and four," replied the bishop.
"Oh! _mon Dieu!_" sighed Porthos, lying down again, like children who contend with their _bonne_ to gain an hour or two more sleep.
"Thirty hours' riding," said Aramis, firmly.

"You know there are good relays." Porthos pushed out one leg, allowing a groan to escape him.
"Come, come! my friend," insisted the prelate with a sort of impatience.
Porthos drew the other leg out of the bed.

"And is it absolutely necessary that I should go, at once ?" "Urgently necessary." Porthos got upon his feet, and began to shake both walls and floors with his steps of a marble statue.
"Hush! hush! for the love of Heaven, my dear Porthos!" said Aramis, "you will wake somebody." "Ah! that's true," replied Porthos, in a voice of thunder, "I forgot that; but be satisfied, I am on guard." And so saying, he let fall a belt loaded with his sword and pistols, and a purse, from which the crowns escaped with a vibrating and prolonged noise.

This noise made the blood of Aramis boil, whilst it drew from Porthos a formidable burst of laughter.


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