D'Artagnan, the King Maker — page 164: what you’re looking at

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

Thin Threads, but Strong. 153 a fine chance of escape to a French port if things turned out adversely. Above all, he had a wife of worth, who valued him as never before. The tribute of the French- man to his valor and self-sacrifice clasped her to him so that she resolved to win or die. But fever visits him on ‘the throne steps as on the truckle bed. After the narrow escape from drowning came the prostration from which he did not so easily extricate himself as. the inured soldier. More than once, by his sick bed, the watchers feared that he would never more take an active step, and that Kang Philip might well rate him out of the lists. In the painful interval of his rallying and recovering, a fisher or two, whom D’Artagnan had had Pedro’s word that they might be relied upon, went away with advices to Oporto, Lisbon and northern points. ‘Their returns came by other fishers, smugglers and chapmen, sure hands; D’Artagnan received them, smil- ing secretly in his mustache; he saw a very far-reaching hand in the composition of these excellent tidings, showing that the guiding spirit in this overturning was a finer one than the Braganzas. “These are thin threads, but strong,’ thought he. “My word on it, they will be twisted into a rope which will strangle Spain!” It was due to the ladies, who pressed the fisherwomen into service, that the interior of the Petrel was altered into comfort, nay, brilliancy. Sailcloth made arras, but over the canvas spread rugs, carpets, tapestry, of the choicest Oriental weaves, which came out of Pedro’s lockers, but would have been envied by dwellers at St. Germain’s, the Escurial or Whitehall. The Braganzas, in this hermitage, sometimes did not regret their place at Villaviciosa. From a stranded whale a profusion of oil had been extracted, so that they baked lamps in clay after the antique pattern, bowl-shaped with protruding beaks; these, ‘with candles, so illuminated the reception-room that one entering, from Italy, for example, would have believed he was in the Chapel of the Child-in-the-Man- ger, at Naples Cathedral. “Vou will be able to mount a ‘horse, or begin a voyage GoOmiGchbooks (€(0) im