[波尔多斯之子]TheSonofPorthos[en].doc

THE SON OF PORTHOS BY ALEXANDER DUMAS. Author of The Count of Monte Cristo,” The Three Guardsmen, “ Twenty Years After, Etc. THE SON OF PORTHOS: OR, THE DEATH OF ARAMIS. CHAPTER I LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON. THE July sun was flooding with light the calm and radiant landscape offered by the banks of the River Loire, neal Saumur, in the middle of the Year of Grace, 1678. The stage-coach running from Nantes to Paris was on tho sandy unpleasant road, drawn by six stout horses, but when the highway rose to cross a ridge, as now, they were none too strong to overcome the difficulty, though lightened of the passengers ; these had to walk up in tiie midst of the keat and dust. At least, the male passengers trudged on, while the lauy inside slumbered. The five men were, a Nantes scrivener, a ship-outfitter, two sardine merchants of Croisic, and a young gallant, half-gentleman-farmer, half-squire of some degree, who hailed from the parish of Locmaria, in Belle-Islein- the-sea, of lasting memory from the . siege which we have chronicled in our pages entitled The Man in the Iro Mask.” Of he country squire he boasted the free carriage, slightly swaggering perhaps, the sunburnt complexion, the longhair coming down upon the shoulders, and the characteristic ail the rustics of that part of Brittany, namely, a medley of tht 4 THE SON OF PORTHOS; OR, simple and the astute, the timid and the tenacious. He wore the picturesque costume of these peasants, the white wool breeches cut full, the leather leg-boots embroidered with silk, the flower-patterned waistcoat, the braided vest, and the wide-brimmed felt hat encircled by a velvet ribbon, and plumed with a peacocks feather. Of the country nobility, he ofttimes assumed the proud and haughty carriage of the 1 head, the curt and imperious voice, a sort of natural loftiness in the gestures, courtesy in the speech and elegance in the manners. Add likewise, as the noblemans insignia, a rapie