getting ready to start, said to Raoul: “Do you not think,
Raoul, that intelligent and vigorous men, as we are, ought
to be ashamed to retreat before the brute strength of wind
and waves?”
“That is precisely the very reflection I was silently making
to myself,” replied Bragelonne.
“Shall we get into that boat, then, and push off? Will you
come, De Wardes?”
“Take care, or you will get drowned,” said Manicamp.
“And for no purpose,” said De Wardes, “for with the wind in
your teeth, as it will be, you will never reach the
vessels.”
“You refuse, then?”
“Assuredly I do; I would willingly risk and lose my life in
an encounter against men,” he said, glancing at Bragelonne,
“but as to fighting with oars against waves, I have no taste
for that.”
“And for myself,” said Manicamp, “even were I to succeed in
reaching the ships, I should not be indifferent to the loss
of the only good dress which I have left, — salt water
would spoil it.”
“You, then, refuse also?” exclaimed De Guiche.
“Decidedly I do; I beg you to understand that most
distinctly.”
“But,” exclaimed De Guiche, “look, De Wardes — look,
Manicamp — look yonder, the princesses are looking at us
from the poop of the admiral’s vessel.”
“An additional reason, my dear fellow, why we should not
make ourselves ridiculous by being drowned while they are
looking on.”
“Is that your last word, Manicamp?”
“Yes.”
“And then yours, De Wardes?”
“Yes.”
“Then I go alone.”
“Not so,” said Raoul, “for I shall accompany you; I thought
it was understood I should do so.”
The fact is, that Raoul, uninfluenced by devotion, measuring
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Dumas, Alexandre – Ten Years Later
the risk they run, saw how imminent the danger was, but he
willingly allowed himself to accept a peril which De Wardes
had declined.
The boat was about to set off when De Guiche called to the
pilot. “Stay,” said he: “we want two places in your boat;”
and wrapping five or six pistoles in paper, he threw them
from the quay into the boat.
“It seems you are not afraid of salt water, young
gentlemen.”
“We are afraid of nothing,” replied De Guiche.
“Come along, then.”
The pilot approached the side of the boat, and the two young
men, one after the other, with equal vivacity, jumped into
the boat. “Courage, my men,” said De Guiche; “I have twenty
pistoles left in this purse, and as soon as we reach the
admiral’s vessel they shall be yours.” The sailors bent
themselves to their oars, and the boat bounded over the
crest of the waves. The interest taken in this hazardous
expedition was universal; the whole population of Havre
hurried towards the jetties and every look was directed
towards the little bark; at one moment it flew suspended on
the crest of the foaming waves, then suddenly glided
downwards towards the bottom of a raging abyss, where it
seemed utterly lost. At the expiration of an hour’s
struggling with the waves, it reached the spot where the
admiral’s vessel was anchored, and from the side of which
two boats had already been dispatched towards their aid.
Upon the quarter-deck of the flagship, sheltered by a canopy
of velvet and ermine, which was suspended by stout supports,
Henrietta, the queen dowager, and the young princess — with
the admiral, the Duke of Norfolk — standing beside them —
watched with alarm this slender bark, at one moment tossed
to the heavens, and the next buried beneath the waves, and
against whose dark sail the noble figures of the two French
gentlemen stood forth in relief like two luminous
apparitions. The crew, leaning against the bulwarks and
clinging to the shrouds, cheered the courage of the two
daring young men, the skill of the pilot, and the strength
of the sailors. They were received at the side of the vessel
by a shout of triumph. The Duke of Norfolk, a handsome young
man, from twenty-six to twenty-eight years of age, advanced
to meet them. De Guiche and Bragelonne lightly mounted the
ladder on the starboard side, and conducted by the Duke of
Norfolk, who resumed his place near them, they approached to