Page:The Vicomte de Bragelonne 2.djvu/295

Rh THE VICOMTE DE BRAGELONNE. 283 "With complications, monseigneur." Mazarin raised himself upon his elbow, and questioning by look and gesture-. "What do you mean by that? Am I worse than I believe myself to be?" "Monseigneur," said Guenaud, seating himself by the bed, "your eminence has worked very hard during your iife; your eminence has suffered much." "But I am not old, I fancy. The late Monsieur de Richelieu was but seventeen months younger than I am when he died, and died of a mortal disease. I am young, Guenaud; remember, I am scarcely fifty -two." "Oh! monseigneur, you are much more than that. How long did the Fronde last?" "For what purpose do you put such a question to me?" "For a medical calculation, monseigneur." "Well, some ten years — off aud on." "Very well; be kind enough to reckon every year of the Fronde as three years — that makes thirty; now twenty and fifty-two make seventy-two years. You are seventy-two, monseigneur; and that is a great age." While saying this, he felt the pulse of his patient. This pulse was filled with such fatal prognostics that the physician continued, not- withstanding the interruptions of the patient: "Put down the years of the Fronde at four each, and you have lived eighty-two years." "Are you speaking seriously, Guenaud?" "Alas! yes, monseigneur." "You take a roundabout way, then, to announce to me that I am very ill?" "Ma foil yes, monseigneur, and with a man of the mind and courage of your eminence, it ought not to be necessary to do so." The cardinal breathed with such difficulty that he in- spired pity even in a pitiless physician. "There are diseases and diseases," resumed Mazarin. "From some of them people escape." "That is true, monseigneur." "Is it not?" cried Mazarin, almost joyously; "for, in short, what else would be the use of power, of strength, of will? Of what use would genius be— your genius, Guenaud? Of what use would be science and art, if the patient, who disposes of all that, cannot be saved from peril?" Guenaud was about to open his moutn, but Mazarin con- tinued: ' .Remember/' said he, "I am the most confiding of your