“Level with the water, and below it; a dangerous passage, but one I have cleared a thousand times. The gentleman required me to land him at Ste. Marguerite.”
“Well?”
“Well, Monsieur!” cried the fisherman, with his provencal accent, “a man is a sailor, or he is not; he knows his course, or he is nothing but a fresh-water lubber. I was obstinate, and wished to try the channel. The gentleman took me by the collar, and told me quietly he would strangle me. My mate armed himself with a hatchet, and so did I: we had the affront of the night before to pay him off for. But the gentleman drew his sword, and used it in such an astonishingly rapid manner that we neither of us could get near him. I was about to hurl my hatchet at his head,- and I had a right to do so, hadn’t I, Monsieur? for a sailor aboard is master, as a citizen is in his chamber,- I was going, then, in self-defence, to cut the gentleman in two, when all at once (believe me or not, Monsieur) the great carriage-case opened of itself, I don’t know how, and there came out of it a sort of a phantom, his head covered with a black helmet and a black mask, something terrible to look upon, which came towards me threatening with its fist.”
“And that was?” said Athos.
“That was the Devil, Monsieur,- for the gentleman, with great glee, cried out on seeing him, ‘Ah, thank you, Monseigneur!'”
“A strange story!” murmured the count, looking at Raoul.
“And what did you do?” asked the latter of the fisherman.
“You must know, Monsieur, that two poor men like us were already too few to fight against two gentlemen; but against the Devil, ah! Well, we didn’t stop to consult each other,- we made but one jump into the sea, for we were within seven or eight hundred feet of the shore.”
“Well, and then?”
“Why, and then, Monseigneur, as there was a little wind from the southwest, the boat drifted into the sands of Ste. Marguerite.”
“Oh! but the two travellers?”
“Bah! you need not be uneasy about them! It was pretty plain that one was the Devil, and protected the other,- for when we recovered the boat, after she got afloat again, instead of finding these two creatures injured by the shock, we found nothing, not even the carriage-case.”
“Very strange! very strange!” repeated the count. “But since that what have you done, my friend?”
“I made my complaint to the governor of Ste. Marguerite, who brought my finger under my nose while telling me if I plagued him with such silly stories he would have me flogged.”
“What! did the governor say so?”
“Yes, Monsieur; and yet my boat was injured, seriously injured, for the prow is left upon the point of Ste. Marguerite, and the carpenter asks a hundred and twenty livres to repair it.”
“Very well,” replied Raoul; “you will be exempted from the service. Go.”
“We will go to Ste. Marguerite, shall we?” said the count to Bragelonne, as the man walked away.
“Yes, Monsieur, for there is something to be cleared up; that man does not seem to me to have told the truth.”
“Nor to me, Raoul. The story of the masked man and the carriage-case having disappeared may be told to conceal some violence these fellows have committed upon their passenger in the open sea, to punish him for his persistence in embarking.”
“I formed the same suspicion; the carriage-case was more likely to contain property than a man.”
“We shall see to that, Raoul. This gentleman very much resembles d’Artagnan; I recognize his mode of proceeding. Alas! we are no longer the young invincibles of former days. Who knows whether the hatchet or the iron bar of this miserable coaster has not succeeded in doing that which the best blades of Europe, balls, and bullets have not been able to do in forty years?”
That same day they set out for Ste. Marguerite’s, on board a chasse-maree come from Toulon under orders. The impression they felt on landing was a singularly pleasing one. The isle was full of flowers and fruits. In its cultivated part it served as a garden for the governor. Orange, pomegranate, and fig trees bent beneath the weight of their golden or purple fruits. All around this garden, in the uncultivated parts, the red partridges ran about in coveys among the brambles and tufts of junipers, and at every step of the count and Raoul a terrified rabbit quitted his thyme and heath to scuttle away to his burrow. In fact, this fortunate isle was uninhabited. Flat, offering nothing but a tiny bay for the convenience of embarkation, under the protection of the governor, who went shares with them, smugglers made use of it as a provisional entrepot, under condition of not killing the game or devastating the garden. With this compromise, the governor was in a situation to be satisfied with a garrison of eight men to guard his fortress, in which twelve cannon accumulated their coats of mouldy green. The governor was a sort of happy farmer, harvesting wines, figs, oil, and oranges, preserving his citrons and cedrats in the sun of his casemates. The fortress, encircled by a deep ditch, its only guardian, raised like three heads its three turrets connected with one another by terraces covered over with moss.