Do you clearly understand what I am saying to you, Raoul?
God forbid I should encourage you to avoid encounters." "I am naturally prudent, monsieur, and I have very good fortune," said Raoul, with a smile which chilled the heart of his poor father; "for," the young man hastened to add, "in twenty combats through which I have been, I have only received one scratch." "There is in addition," said Athos, "the climate to be dreaded: that is an ugly end, to die of fever! King Saint-Louis prayed God to send him an arrow or the plague, rather than the fever." "Oh, monsieur! with sobriety, with reasonable exercise--" "I have already obtained from M.de Beaufort a promise that his dispatches shall be sent off every fortnight to France.

You, as his aide-de-camp, will be charged with expediting them, and will be sure not to forget me." "No, monsieur," said Raoul, almost choked with emotion.
"Besides, Raoul, as you are a good Christian, and I am one also, we ought to reckon upon a more special protection of God and His guardian angels.

Promise me that if anything evil should happen to you, on any occasion, you will think of me at once." "First and at once! Oh! yes, monsieur." "And will call upon me ?" "Instantly." "You dream of me sometimes, do you not, Raoul ?" "Every night, monsieur.

During my early youth I saw you in my dreams, calm and mild, with one hand stretched out over my head, and that it was which made me sleep so soundly--formerly." "We love each other too dearly," said the comte, "that from this moment, in which we separate, a portion of both our souls should not travel with one and the other of us, and should not dwell wherever we may dwell.
Whenever you may be sad, Raoul, I feel that my heart will be dissolved in sadness; and when you smile on thinking of me, be assured you will send me, from however remote a distance, a vital scintillation of your joy." "I will not promise you to be joyous," replied the young man; "but you may be certain that I will never pass an hour without thinking of you, not one hour, I swear, unless I shall be dead." Athos could contain himself no longer; he threw his arm round the neck of his son, and held him embraced with all the power of his heart.

The moon began to be now eclipsed by twilight; a golden band surrounded the horizon, announcing the approach of the day.