CHAPTER CXXI.
THE GROTTO OF LOCMARIA.
The cavern of Locmaria was sufficiently distant from the mole to renderit necessary for our friends to husband their strength to arrive there.Besides, night was advancing; midnight had struck at the fort. Porthosand Aramis were loaded with money and arms. They walked then, across theheath, which is between the mole and the cavern, listening to everynoise, and endeavoring to avoid ambushes. From time to time, on theroad, which they had carefully left on their left hand, passed fugitivescoming from the interior, at the news of the landing of the royaltroops. Aramis and Porthos, concealed behind some projecting mass ofrock, collected the words which escaped from the poor people who fledtrembling, carrying with them their most valuable effects, and tried,while listening to their complaints, to draw something from them fortheir own interest. At length, after a rapid course, frequentlyinterrupted by prudent stoppages, they reached the deep grottos, intowhich the foreseeing bishop of Vannes had taken care to have rolled uponcylinders a good bark capable of keeping the sea at this fine season.
"My good friend," said Porthos, after having respired vigorously, "weare arrived, it seems. But I thought you spoke of three men, threeservants who were to accompany us. I don't see them--where are they?"
"Why should you see them, dear Porthos?" replied Aramis. "They arecertainly waiting for us in the cavern, and, no doubt, are resting for amoment, after having accomplished their rough and difficult task."
Aramis stopped Porthos, who was preparing to enter the cavern. "Will youallow me, my friend," said he to the giant, "to pass in first? I knowthe signal I have given to these men; who, not hearing it, would be verylikely to fire upon you or slash away with their knives in the dark."
"Go on, then, Aramis; go on--go first; you are all wisdom and prudence;go on. Ah! there is that fatigue again, of which I spoke to you. It hasjust seized me again."
Aramis left Porthos sitting at the entrance of the grotto, and bowinghis head, he penetrated into the interior of the cavern, imitating thecry of the owl. A little plaintive cooing, a scarcely distinct cry,replied from the depths of the cave. Aramis pursued his way cautiously,and soon was stopped by the same kind of cry as he had first uttered andthis cry sounded within ten paces of him.
"Are you there, Yves?" said the bishop.
"Yes, monseigneur; Goenne is here likewise. His son accompanies us."
"That is well. Are all things ready?"
"Yes, monseigneur."
"Go to the entrance of the grottos, my good Yves, and you will therefind the Seigneur de Pierrefonds, who is resting after the fatigues ofour journey. And if he should happen not to be able to walk, lift himup, and bring him hither to me."
The three men obeyed. But the recommendation given to his servants wasuseless. Porthos, refreshed, had already himself commenced the descent,and his heavy step resounded among the cavities, formed and supported bycolumns of silex and granite. As soon as the Seigneur de Bracieux hadrejoined the bishop, the Bretons lighted a lantern with which they werefurnished, and Porthos assured his friend that he felt as strong againas ever.
"Let us visit the canoe," said Aramis, "and satisfy ourselves at oncewhat it will hold."
"Do not go too near with the light," said the patron Yves; "for, as youdesired me, monseigneur, I have placed under the bench of the poop, inthe coffer you know of, the barrel of powder, and the musket-chargesthat you sent me from the fort."
"Very well," said Aramis; and, taking the lantern himself, he examinedminutely all parts of the canoe, with the precautions of a man who isneither timid nor ignorant in the face of danger. The canoe was long,light, drawing little water, thin of keel, in short, one of those whichhave always been so well constructed at Belle-Isle; a little high in itssides, solid upon the water, very manageable, furnished with plankswhich, in uncertain weather, form a sort of bridge over which the wavesglide and which protect the rowers. In two well-closed coffers, placedbeneath the benches of the prow and the poop, Aramis found bread,biscuit, dried fruits, a quarter of bacon, a good provision of water inleathern bottles; the whole forming rations sufficient for people whodid not mean to quit the coast, and would be able to revictual, ifnecessity commanded. The arms, eight muskets, and as many horse-pistols,were in good condition, and all loaded. There were additional oars, incase of accident, and that little sail called _trinquet_, which assiststhe speed of the canoe at the same time the boatmen row, which is souseful when the breeze is slack. When Aramis had seen all these things,and appeared satisfied with the result of his inspection, "Let usconsult, Porthos," said he, "to know if we must endeavor to get the barkout by the unknown extremity of the grotto, following the descent andthe shade of the cavern, or whether it be better, in the open air, tomake it slide upon the rollers through the bushes, leveling the road ofthe little beach, which is but twenty feet high, and gives at its foot,in the tide, three or four fathoms of good water upon a sound bottom."
"It must be as you please, monseigneur," replied the patron Yves,respectfully; "but I don't believe that by the slope of the cavern, andin the dark, in which we shall be obliged to maneuver our boat, the roadwill be so convenient as in the open air. I know the beach well, and cancertify that it is as smooth as a grass plat in a garden; the interiorof the grotto, on the contrary, is rough: without again reckoning,monseigneur, that at the extremity we shall come to the trench whichleads into the sea, and perhaps the canoe will not pass down it."
"I have made my calculations," said the bishop, "and I am certain itwould pass."
"So be it; I wish it may, monseigneur," continued the patron; "but yourgreatness knows very well that to make it reach the extremity of thetrench, there is an enormous stone to be lifted--that under which thefox always passes, and which closes the trench up like a door."
"That can be raised," said Porthos, "that is nothing."
"Oh! I know that monseigneur has the strength of ten men," replied Yves;"but that is giving monseigneur a great deal of trouble."
"I think the patron may be right," said Aramis; "let us try the open airpassage."
"The more so, monseigneur," continued the fisherman, "that we should notbe able to embark before day, it would require so much labor, and thatas soon as daylight appears, a good vedette placed outside the grottowould be necessary, indispensable even, to watch the maneuvers of thelighters or the cruisers that are upon the look-out for us."
"Yes, yes, Yves, your reasons are good; we will go by the beach."
And the three robust Bretons went to the boat, and were beginning toplace their rollers underneath it to put it in motion, when the distantbarking of dogs was heard, proceeding from the interior.
Aramis darted out of the grotto, followed by Porthos. Dawn just dintedwith purple and white the waves and the plain; through the dim light theyoung melancholy firs waved their tender branches over the pebbles, andlong flights of crows were skimming with their black wings over the thinfields of buckwheat. In a quarter of an hour it would be clear daylight;the awakened birds joyously announced it to all nature. The barkingswhich had been heard, which had stopped the three fishermen engaged inmoving the boat, and had brought Aramis and Porthos out of the cavern,were prolonged in a deep gorge within about a league of the grotto.
"It is a pack of hounds," said Porthos; "the dogs are upon a scent."
"Who can be hunting at such a moment as this?" said Aramis.
"And this way, particularly," continued Porthos, "this way, where theymay expect the army of the royalists."
"The noise comes nearer. Yes, you are right, Porthos, the dogs are on ascent. But, Yves!" cried Aramis, "come here! come here!"
Yves ran toward him, letting fall the cylinder which he was about toplace under the boat when the bishop's call interrupted him.
"What is the meaning of this hunt, patron?" said Porthos.
"Eh! monseigneur, I cannot understand it," replied the Breton. "It isnot at such a moment that the Seigneur de Locmaria would hunt. No, andyet the dogs--"
/> "Unless they have escaped from the kennel."
"No," said Goenne, "they are not the Seigneur de Locmaria's hounds."
"In common prudence," said Aramis, "let us go back into the grotto; thevoices evidently draw nearer, we shall soon know what we have to trustto."
They re-entered, but had scarcely proceeded a hundred steps in thedarkness, when a noise like the hoarse sigh of a creature in distressresounded through the cavern, and breathless, rapid, terrified, a foxpassed like a flash of lightning before the fugitives, leaped over theboat and disappeared, leaving behind it its sour scent, which wasperceptible for several seconds under the low vaults of the cave.
"The fox!" cried the Bretons, with the joyous surprise of hunters.
"Accursed chance!" cried the bishop, "our retreat is discovered."
"How so?" said Porthos, "are we afraid of a fox?"
"Eh! my friend, what do you mean by that, and why do you name the fox?It is not the fox alone, pardieu! But don't you know, Porthos, thatafter the fox come hounds, and after the hounds men?"
Porthos hung his head. As if to confirm the words of Aramis, they heardthe yelping pack come with frightful swiftness upon the trail of theanimal. Six foxhounds burst out at once upon the little heath, with acry resembling the noise of a triumph.
"There are the dogs plain enough!" said Aramis, posted on the look-out,behind a chink, between two rocks; "now, who are the huntsmen?"
"If it is the Seigneur de Locmaria's," replied the patron, "he willleave the dogs to hunt the grotto, for he knows them, and will not enterin himself, being quite sure that the fox will come out at the otherside; it is there he will go and wait for him."
"It is not the Seigneur de Locmaria who is hunting," replied Aramis,turning pale, in spite of his efforts to maintain a good countenance.
"Who is it, then?" said Porthos.
"Look!"
Porthos applied his eye to the slit, and saw at the summit of a hillocka dozen horsemen urging on their horses in the track of the dogs,shouting "Taiaut! taiaut!"
"The guards!" said he.
"Yes, my friend, the king's guards."
"The king's guards! do you say, monseigneur!" cried the Bretons,becoming pale in their turns.
"And Biscarrat at their head, mounted upon my gray horse," continuedAramis.
The hounds at the same moment rushed into the grotto like an avalanche,and the depths of the cavern were filled with their deafening cries.
"Ah! the devil!" said Aramis, resuming all his coolness at the sight ofthis certain, inevitable danger. "I am perfectly satisfied we are lost,but we have at least one chance left. If the guards who follow theirhounds happen to discover there is an issue to the grotto, there is nomore help for us, for on entering they must see both us and our boat.The dogs must not go out of the cavern. The masters must not enter."
"That is clear," said Porthos.
"You understand," added Aramis, with the rapid precision of command;"there are six dogs which will be forced to stop at the great stoneunder which the fox has glided--but at the too narrow opening of whichthey shall be themselves stopped and killed."
The Bretons sprang forward, knife in hand. In a few minutes there was alamentable concert of growls, and mortal howlings--and then, nothing.
"That's well!" said Aramis, coolly; "now for the masters!"
"What is to be done with them?" said Porthos.
"Wait their arrival, conceal ourselves, and kill them."
"Kill them!" replied Porthos.
"There are sixteen," said Aramis, "at least, up at present."
"And well armed," added Porthos, with a smile of consolation.
"It will last about ten minutes," said Aramis. "To work!"
And with a resolute air he took up a musket, and placed hishunting-knife between his teeth.
"Yves, Goenne, and his son," continued Aramis, "will pass the muskets tous. You, Porthos, will fire when they are close. We shall have broughtdown eight before the others are aware of anything--that is certain;then all, there are five of us, we will dispatch the other eight, knifein hand."
"And poor Biscarrat?" said Porthos.
Aramis reflected a moment. "Biscarrat the first," replied he, coolly;"he knows us."