CHAPTER CXXIII.
AN HOMERIC SONG.
It is time to pass into the other camp, and to describe at once thecombatants and the field of battle. Aramis and Porthos had gone to thegrotto of Locmaria with the expectation of finding there their canoeready armed, as well as the three Bretons, their assistants; and they atfirst hoped to make the bark pass through the little issue of thecavern, concealing, in that fashion, both their labors and their flight.The arrival of the fox and the dogs had obliged them to remainconcealed. The grotto extended the space of about a hundred toises, tothat little slope dominating a creek. Formerly, a temple of the Celticdivinities, when Belle-Isle was still called Colonese, this grotto hadseen more than one human sacrifice accomplished in its mysteriousdepths. The first entrance to the cavern was by a moderate descent,above which heaped-up rocks formed a low arcade; the interior, veryunequal as to the ground, dangerous from the rocky inequalities of thevault, was subdivided into several compartments which commanded eachother and joined each other by means of several rough broken steps,fixed right and left, in enormous natural pillars. At the thirdcompartment, the vault was so low, the passage so narrow, that the barkwould scarcely have passed without touching the two sides; nevertheless,in a moment of despair, wood softens and stone becomes compliant underthe breath of human will. Such was the thought of Aramis, when, afterhaving fought the fight, he decided upon flight--a flight certainlydangerous, since all the assailants were not dead; and that, admittingthe possibility of putting the bark to sea, they would have to fly inopen day, before the conquered, so interested on recognizing their smallnumber, in pursuing their conquerors. When the two discharges had killedten men, Aramis, habituated to the windings of the cavern, went toreconnoiter them one by one--counted them, for the smoke preventedseeing outside; and he immediately commanded that the canoe should berolled as far as the great stone, the closure of the liberating issue.Porthos collected all his strength, took the canoe up in his arms, andraised it up, while the Bretons made it run rapidly along the rollers.They had descended into the third compartment; they had arrived at thestone which walled up the outlet. Porthos seized this gigantic stone atits base, applied to it his robust shoulder, and gave a heave which madethis wall crack.
A cloud of dust fell from the vault with the ashes of ten thousandgenerations of sea birds, whose nests stuck like cement to the rock. Atthe third shock the stone gave way; it oscillated for a minute. Porthos,placing his back against the neighboring rock, made an arch with hisfoot, which drove the block out of the calcareous masses which servedfor hinges and cramps. The stone fell, and daylight was visible,brilliant, radiant, which rushed into the cavern by the opening, and theblue sea appeared to the delighted Bretons. They then began to lift thebark over the barricade. Twenty more toises, and it might glide into theocean. It was during this time that the company arrived, was drawn up bythe captain, and disposed for either an escalade or an assault. Aramiswatched over everything, to favor the labors of his friends. He saw there-enforcements, he counted the men, he convinced himself at a singleglance of the insurmountable peril to which a fresh combat would exposethem. To escape by sea, at the moment the cavern was about to beinvaded, was impossible. In fact, the daylight which had just beenadmitted to the two last compartments had exposed to the soldiers thebark being rolled toward the sea, the two rebels within musket shot, andone of their discharges would riddle the boat if it did not kill thefive navigators. Besides, supposing everything--if the bark escaped withthe men on board of it, how could the alarm be suppressed--how couldnotice to the royal lighters be prevented? What could hinder the poorcanoe, followed by sea, and watched from the shore, from succumbingbefore the end of the day? Aramis, digging his hands into his gray hairwith rage, invoked the assistance of God, and the assistance of thedemon. Calling to Porthos, who was working alone more than all therollers--whether of flesh or of wood--"My friend," said he, "ouradversaries have just received a re-enforcement."
"Ah! ah!" said Porthos, quietly, "what is to be done, then?"
"To recommence the combat," said Aramis, "is hazardous."
"Yes," said Porthos, "for it is difficult to suppose that out of two oneshould not be killed, and certainly, if one of us were killed, the otherwould get himself killed also." Porthos spoke these words with thatheroic nature, which, with him, grew greater with all the phases ofmatter.
Aramis felt it like a spur to his heart. "We shall neither of us bekilled if you do what I tell you, friend Porthos."
"Tell me what?"
"These people are coming down into the grotto."
"Yes."
"We could kill about fifteen of them, but not more."
"How many are there in all?" asked Porthos.
"They have received a re-enforcement of seventy-five men."
"Seventy-five and five, eighty. Ah! ah!" said Porthos.
"If they fire all at once they will riddle us with balls."
"Certainly they will."
"Without reckoning," added Aramis, "that the detonations might occasionfallings in of the cavern."
"Aye," said Porthos, "a piece of falling rock just now grazed myshoulder a little."
"You see, then!"
"Oh! it is nothing."
"We must determine upon something quickly. Our Bretons are going tocontinue to roll the canoe toward the sea."
"Very well."
"We two will keep the powder, the balls, and muskets here."
"But only two, my dear Aramis--we shall never fire three shotstogether," said Porthos, innocently, "the defense by musketry is a badone."
"Find a better, then."
"I have found one," said the giant, eagerly; "I will place myself inambuscade behind the pillar with this iron bar, and invisible,unattackable, if they come in in floods, I can let my bar fall upontheir skulls, thirty times in a minute. Hein! what do you think of theproject? You smile."
"Excellent, dear friend, perfect! I approve it greatly; only you willfrighten them, and half of them will remain outside to take us byfamine. What we want, my good friend, is the entire destruction of thetroop; a single man left standing ruins us."
"You are right, my friend, but how can we attract them, pray?"
"By not stirring, my good Porthos."
"Well! we won't stir, then; but when they shall be all together--"
"Then leave it to me, I have an idea."
"If it is thus, and your idea be a good one--and your idea is mostlikely to be good--I am satisfied."
"To your ambuscade, Porthos, and count how many enter."
"But you, what will you do?"
"Don't trouble yourself about me; I have a task to perform."
"I think I can hear cries."
"It is they! To your post. Keep within reach of my voice and hand."
Porthos took refuge in the second compartment, which was absolutelyblack with darkness. Aramis glided into the third; the giant held in hishand an iron bar of about fifty pounds' weight. Porthos handled thislever, which had been used in rolling the bark, with marvelous facility.During this time, the Bretons had pushed the bark to the beach. In theenlightened compartment, Aramis, stooping and concealed, was busied insome mysterious maneuver. A command was given in a loud voice. It wasthe last order of the captain commandant. Twenty-five men jumped fromthe upper rocks into the first compartment of the grotto, and havingtaken their ground, began to fire. The echoes growled, the hissing ofthe balls cut the air, an opaque smoke filled the vault.
"To the left! to the left!" cried Biscarrat, who, in his first assault,had seen the passage to the second chamber, and who, animated by thesmell of powder, wished to guide his soldiers in that direction. Thetroop accordingly precipitated themselves to the left--the passagegradually growing narrower. Biscarrat, with his hands stretched forward,devoted to death, marched in advance of the muskets. "Come on! come on!"exclaimed he, "I see daylight!"
"Strike, Porthos!" cried the sepulchral voice of Aramis.
Porthos breathed a heavy sigh--but h
e obeyed. The iron bar fell full anddirect upon the head of Biscarrat, who was dead before he had ended hiscry. Then the formidable lever rose ten times in ten seconds, and madeten corpses. The soldiers could see nothing; they heard sighs andgroans; they stumbled over dead bodies, but as they had no conception ofthe cause of all this, they came forward jostling each other. Theimplacable bar, still falling, annihilated the first platoon, without asingle sound having warned the second, which was quietly advancing, onlythis second platoon, commanded by the captain, had broken a thin fir,growing on the shore, and, with its resinous branches twisted together,the captain had made a flambeau. On arriving at the compartment wherePorthos, like the exterminating angel, had destroyed all he touched, thefirst rank drew back in terror. No firing had replied to that of theguards, and yet their way was stopped by a heap of dead bodies--theyliterally walked in blood. Porthos was still behind his pillar. Thecaptain, on enlightening with the trembling flame of the fir thisfrightful carnage, of which he in vain sought the cause, drew backtoward the pillar, behind which Porthos was concealed. Then a gigantichand issued from the shade, and fastened on the throat of the captain,who uttered a stifled rattle; his stretched out arms beating the air,the torch fell and was extinguished in blood. A second after, the corpseof the captain fell close to the extinguished torch, and added anotherbody to the heap of dead which blocked up the passage. All this waseffected as mysteriously as if by magic. At hearing the rattling in thethroat of the captain, the soldiers who accompanied him had turnedround: they had caught a glimpse of his extended arms, his eyes startingfrom their sockets, and then the torch fell and they were left indarkness. From an unreflective, instinctive, mechanical feeling, thelieutenant cried--"Fire!"
Immediately a volley of musketry flamed, thundered, roared in thecavern, bringing down enormous fragments from the vaults. The cavern waslighted for an instant by this discharge, and then immediately returnedto a darkness rendered still thicker by the smoke. To this succeeded aprofound silence, broken only by the steps of the third brigade, nowentering the cavern.