D'Artagnan, the King Maker — page 288: what you’re looking at

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

Tapping the Volcano. 271 lief for the removal of the bugbear of all fortified towns ; the dread that the city would be destroyed by its guns. “On my head, you will be rewarded,” said the de- throned lady to Du Vallon, who bowed and kissed her hand before her ladies hurriedly bore her away, like swans surrounding Leda. “I would rather have a better security, pretty as it is!” he muttered, dubious about royal memories. “‘But what will D’Artagnan say to this? Bah, he is in love—no woman is strange to him!” He put the state paper in his doublet, useless though it was and examined the scene at ease. Out on the square, carpenters were raising a stage, scaffold or dais, for execution or a coronation? “They are much alike!” mused he. Here and there, men with swart faces, nervous ac- tion and rapid glances, were carrying bags; wayfarers -shunned them at a warning whisper going before. “Are they going to blow up the chief houses? Woe to the land where the nobles are the assessors and the gentry the collectors!” | They were firework-makers, going to set up the frames for parti-colored artifices to celebrate the victory and the entry of the new monarch. : The universal cry was: “Long live Don Juan IV.!” “This is all very fine. Everything in my country ends with a song and dance—here, with a bonfire! Tastes differ! But what has become of my friends while I have been overturning a rule—or, at least, the king’s vice?” Pedro was collecting his men. As for Don Jorge, Porthos could not be expected to worry about him—a married man, he might not love him for his sister’s sake! “My good angel was my valet to put this coat on!” said Porthos, complacently remembering the bevy of maids of honor. CONNIE OOOKS (CO im