Vingt ans après. English

  72. End of the Port Wine Mystery.

  Grimaud waited till he heard the bolt grind in the lock and when he wassatisfied that he was alone he slowly rose from his recumbent posture.

  "Ah!" he said, wiping with his sleeve large drops of sweat from hisforehead, "how lucky it was that Mousqueton was thirsty!"

  He made haste to pass out by the opening, still thinking himself in adream; but the sight of the gunpowder in the tankard proved to him thathis dream was a fatal nightmare.

  It may be imagined that D'Artagnan listened to these details withincreasing interest; before Grimaud had finished he rose without noiseand putting his mouth to Aramis's ear, and at the same time touching himon the shoulder to prevent a sudden movement:

  "Chevalier," he said, "get up and don't make the least noise."

  Aramis awoke. D'Artagnan, pressing his hand, repeated his call. Aramisobeyed.

  "Athos is near you," said D'Artagnan; "warn him as I have warned you."

  Aramis easily aroused Athos, whose sleep was light, like that of allpersons of a finely organized constitution. But there was moredifficulty in arousing Porthos. He was beginning to ask full explanationof that breaking in on his sleep, which was very annoying to him, whenD'Artagnan, instead of explaining, closed his mouth with his hand.

  Then our Gascon, extending his arms, drew to him the heads of his threefriends till they almost touched one another.

  "Friends," he said, "we must leave this craft at once or we are deadmen."

  "Bah!" said Athos, "are you still afraid?"

  "Do you know who is captain of this vessel?"

  "No."

  "Captain Groslow."

  The shudder of the three musketeers showed to D'Artagnan that his wordsbegan to make some impression on them.

  "Groslow!" said Aramis; "the devil!

  "Who is this Groslow?" asked Porthos. "I don't remember him."

  "Groslow is the man who broke Parry's head and is now getting ready tobreak ours."

  "Oh! oh!"

  "And do you know who is his lieutenant?"

  "His lieutenant? There is none," said Athos. "They don't havelieutenants in a felucca manned by a crew of four."

  "Yes, but Monsieur Groslow is not a captain of the ordinary kind; he hasa lieutenant, and that lieutenant is Monsieur Mordaunt."

  This time the musketeers did more than shudder--they almost cried out.Those invincible men were subject to a mysterious and fatal influencewhich that name had over them; the mere sound of it filled them withterror.

  "What shall we do?" said Athos.

  "We must seize the felucca," said Aramis.

  "And kill him," said Porthos.

  "The felucca is mined," said D'Artagnan. "Those casks which I took forcasks of port wine are filled with powder. When Mordaunt finds himselfdiscovered he will destroy all, friends and foes; and on my word hewould be bad company in going either to Heaven or to hell."

  "You have some plan, then?" asked Athos.

  "Yes."

  "What is it?"

  "Have you confidence in me?"

  "Give your orders," said the three musketeers.

  "Very well; come this way."

  D'Artagnan went toward a very small, low window, just large enough tolet a man through. He turned it gently on its hinges.

  "There," he said, "is our road."

  "The deuce! it is a very cold one, my dear friend," said Aramis.

  "Stay here, if you like, but I warn you 'twill be rather too warmpresently."

  "But we cannot swim to the shore."

  "The longboat is yonder, lashed to the felucca. We will take possessionof it and cut the cable. Come, my friends."

  "A moment's delay," said Athos; "our servants?"

  "Here we are!" they cried.

  Meantime the three friends were standing motionless before the awfulsight which D'Artagnan, in raising the shutters, had disclosed to themthrough the narrow opening of the window.

  Those who have once beheld such a spectacle know that there is nothingmore solemn, more striking, than the raging sea, rolling, with itsdeafening roar, its dark billows beneath the pale light of a wintrymoon.

  "Gracious Heaven, we are hesitating!" cried D'Artagnan; "if we hesitatewhat will the servants do?"

  "I do not hesitate, you know," said Grimaud.

  "Sir," interposed Blaisois, "I warn you that I can only swim in rivers."

  "And I not at all," said Mousqueton.

  But D'Artagnan had now slipped through the window.

  "You have decided, friend?" said Athos.

  "Yes," the Gascon answered; "Athos! you, who are a perfect being, bidspirit triumph over body. Do you, Aramis, order the servants. Porthos,kill every one who stands in your way."

  And after pressing the hand of Athos, D'Artagnan chose a moment when theship rolled backward, so that he had only to plunge into the water,which was already up to his waist.

  Athos followed him before the felucca rose again on the waves; the cablewhich tied the boat to the vessel was then seen plainly rising out ofthe sea.

  D'Artagnan swam to it and held it, suspending himself by this rope, hishead alone out of water.

  In one second Athos joined him.

  Then they saw, as the felucca turned, two other heads peeping, those ofAramis and Grimaud.

  "I am uneasy about Blaisois," said Athos; "he can, he says, only swim inrivers."

  "When people can swim at all they can swim anywhere. To the boat! to theboat!"

  "But Porthos, I do not see him."

  "Porthos is coming--he swims like Leviathan."

  In fact, Porthos did not appear; for a scene, half tragedy and halfcomedy, had been performed by him with Mousqueton and Blaisois, who,frightened by the noise of the sea, by the whistling of the wind, by thesight of that dark water yawning like a gulf beneath them, shrank backinstead of going forward.

  "Come, come!" said Porthos; "jump in."

  "But, monsieur," said Mousqueton, "I can't swim; let me stay here."

  "And me, too, monsieur," said Blaisois.

  "I assure you, I shall be very much in the way in that little boat,"said Mousqueton.

  "And I know I shall drown before reaching it," continued Blaisois.

  "Come along! I shall strangle you both if you don't get out," saidPorthos at last, seizing Mousqueton by the throat. "Forward, Blaisois!"

  A groan, stifled by the grasp of Porthos, was all the reply of poorBlaisois, for the giant, taking him neck and heels, plunged him into thewater headforemost, pushing him out of the window as if he had been aplank.

  "Now, Mousqueton," he said, "I hope you don't mean to desert yourmaster?"

  "Ah, sir," replied Mousqueton, his eyes filling with tears, "why did youre-enter the army? We were all so happy in the Chateau de Pierrefonds!"

  And without any other complaint, passive and obedient, either from truedevotion to his master or from the example set by Blaisois, Mousquetonleaped into the sea headforemost. A sublime action, at all events, forMousqueton looked upon himself as dead. But Porthos was not a man toabandon an old servant, and when Mousqueton rose above the water, blindas a new-born puppy, he found he was supported by the large hand ofPorthos and that he was thus enabled, without having occasion even tomove, to advance toward the cable with the dignity of a very triton.

  In a few minutes Porthos had rejoined his companions, who were alreadyin the boat; but when, after they had all got in, it came to his turn,there was great danger that in putting his huge leg over the edge of theboat he would upset the little vessel. Athos was the last to enter.

  "Are you all here?" he asked.

  "Ah! have you your sword, Athos?" cried D'Artagnan.

  "Yes."

  "Cut the cable, then."

  Athos drew a sharp poniard from his belt and cut the cord. The feluccawent on, the boat continued stationary, rocked only by the swashingwaves.

  "Come, Athos!" said D'Artagnan, giving his hand to the count; "you aregoing to see something curious," added the Gasc
on.