The Man in the Iron Mask

  Chapter XLIX. An Homeric Song.

  It is time to pass to 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 theyat first 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 dogs obliged them to remain concealed. Thegrotto extended the space of about a hundred _toises_, to that littleslope dominating a creek. Formerly a temple of the Celtic divinities,when Belle-Isle was still called Kalonese, this grotto had beheld morethan one human sacrifice accomplished in its mystic depths. The firstentrance to the cavern was by a moderate descent, above which distortedrocks formed a weird arcade; the interior, very uneven and dangerousfrom the inequalities of the vault, was subdivided into severalcompartments, which communicated with each other by means of rough andjagged steps, fixed right and left, in uncouth natural pillars. At thethird compartment the vault was so low, the passage so narrow, that thebark would scarcely have passed without touching the side; nevertheless,in moments of despair, wood softens and stone grows flexible beneath thehuman will. Such was the thought of Aramis, when, after having foughtthe fight, he decided upon flight--a flight most dangerous, since allthe assailants were not dead; and that, admitting the possibility ofputting the bark to sea, they would have to fly in open day, before theconquered, so interested on recognizing their small number, in pursuingtheir conquerors. When the two discharges had killed ten men, Aramis,familiar with the windings of the cavern, went to reconnoiter them oneby one, and counted them, for the smoke prevented seeing outside; andhe immediately commanded that the canoe should be rolled as far as thegreat stone, the closure of the liberating issue. Porthos collected allhis strength, took the canoe in his arms, and raised it up, whilst theBretons made it run rapidly along the rollers. They had descended intothe third compartment; they had arrived at the stone which walled theoutlet. Porthos seized this gigantic stone at its base, applied hisrobust shoulder, and gave a heave which made the wall crack. A cloud ofdust fell from the vault, with the ashes of ten thousand generations ofsea birds, whose nests stuck like cement to the rock. At the third shockthe stone gave way, and oscillated for a minute. Porthos, placing hisback against the neighboring rock, made an arch with his foot, whichdrove the block out of the calcareous masses which served for hinges andcramps. The stone fell, and daylight was visible, brilliant, radiant,flooding the cavern through the opening, and the blue sea appeared tothe delighted Bretons. They began to lift the bark over the barricade.Twenty more _toises_, and it would glide into the ocean. It was duringthis time that the company arrived, was drawn up by the captain, anddisposed for either an escalade or an assault. Aramis watchedover everything, to favor the labors of his friends. He saw thereinforcements, counted the men, and convinced himself at a singleglance of the insurmountable peril to which 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 last compartments had exposed to the soldiers the barkbeing rolled towards the sea, the two rebels within musket-shot; andone of their discharges would riddle the boat if it did not kill thenavigators. Besides, allowing everything,--if the bark escaped with themen on board of it, how could the alarm be suppressed--how could noticeto the royal lighters be prevented? What could hinder the poor canoe,followed by sea and watched from the shore, from succumbing before theend of the day? Aramis, digging his hands into his gray hair with rage,invoked the assistance of God and the assistance of the demons. Callingto Porthos, who was doing more work than all the rollers--whether offlesh or wood--"My friend," said he, "our adversaries have just receiveda reinforcement."

  "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,one should not be killed; and certainly, if one of us was killed, theother would get himself killed also." Porthos spoke these words withthat heroic nature which, with him, grew grander with necessity.

  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 no more."

  "How many are there in all?" asked Porthos.

  "They have received a reinforcement of seventy-five men."

  "Seventy-five and five, eighty. Ah!" sighed Porthos.

  "If they fire all at once they will riddle us with balls."

  "Certainly they will."

  "Without reckoning," added Aramis, "that the detonation might occasion acollapse of the cavern."

  "Ay," said Porthos, "a piece of falling rock just now grazed myshoulder."

  "You see, then?"

  "Oh! it is nothing."

  "We must determine upon something quickly. Our Bretons are going tocontinue to roll the canoe towards the sea."

  "Very well."

  "We two will keep the powder, the balls, and the 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 myselfin ambuscade behind the pillar with this iron bar, and invisible,unattackable, if they come in floods, I can let my bar fall upon theirskulls, 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 survivor encompasses our ruin."

  "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 are all together--"

  "Then leave it to me, I have an idea."

  "If it is so, and your idea proves 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 hear shouts."

  "It is they! To your post. Keep within reach of my voice and hand."

  Porthos took refuge in the second compartment, which was in darkness,absolutely black. 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 thefurther and lighter compartment, Aramis, stooping and concealed, wasbusy with some mysterious maneuver. A command was given in a loud voice.It was the last order of the captain commandant. Twenty-five men jumpedfrom the upper rocks into the first compartment of the grotto, andhaving taken their ground, began to fire. The echoes shrieked andbarked, the hissing balls seemed actually to rarefy the air, and thenopaque 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 he obeyed. The iron bar fell full anddirect upon the head of Biscarrat, who was dead before he had ended hiscry. Then the formidable leve
r rose ten times in ten seconds, andmade ten corpses. The soldiers could see nothing; they heard sighs andgroans; they stumbled over dead bodies, but as they had no conceptionof the cause of all this, they came forward jostling each other. Theimplacable bar, still falling, annihilated the first platoon, withouta single sound to warn the second, which was quietly advancing; only,commanded by the captain, the men had stripped a fir, growing on theshore, and, with its resinous branches twisted together, the captain hadmade a flambeau. On arriving at the compartment where Porthos, like theexterminating angel, had destroyed all he touched, the first rank drewback in terror. No firing had replied to that of the guards, and yettheir way was stopped by a heap of dead bodies--they literally walked inblood. Porthos was still behind his pillar. The captain, illumining withtrembling pine-torch this frightful carnage, of which he in vainsought the cause, drew back towards the pillar behind which Porthos wasconcealed. Then a gigantic hand issued from the shade, and fastenedon the throat of the captain, who uttered a stifle rattle; hisstretched-out arms beating the air, the torch fell and was extinguishedin blood. A second after, the corpse of the captain dropped close tothe extinguished torch, and added another body to the heap of dead whichblocked up the passage. All this was effected as mysteriously as thoughby magic. At hearing the rattling in the throat of the captain, thesoldiers who accompanied him had turned round, caught a glimpse of hisextended arms, his eyes starting from their sockets, and then the torchfell and they were left in darkness. From an unreflective, instinctive,mechanical feeling, the lieutenant 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 pitchy darkness rendered thicker by the smoke. To this succeeded aprofound silence, broken only by the steps of the third brigade, nowentering the cavern.