of those masses of black rocks, “these are fortifications
which do not stand in need of any engineer to render a
landing difficult. How the devil can a landing be effected
on that isle which God has defended so completely?”
“This way,” replied the patron of the bark, changing the
sail, and impressing upon the rudder a twist which turned
the boat in the direction of a pretty little port, quite
coquettish, round, and newly battlemented.
“What the devil do I see yonder?” said D’Artagnan.
“You see Leomaria,” replied the fisherman.
“Well, but there?”
“That is Bragos.”
Page 397
Dumas, Alexandre – Ten Years Later
“And further on?”
“Sanger, and then the palace.”
“Mordioux! It is a world. Ah! there are some soldiers.”
“There are seventeen hundred men in Belle-Isle, monsieur,”
replied the fisherman, proudly. “Do you know that the least
garrison is of twenty companies of infantry?”
“Mordioux!” cried D’Artagnan, stamping with his foot. “His
Majesty was right enough.”
They landed.
CHAPTER 69
In which the Reader, no doubt, will be as astonished
as D’Artagnan was to meet an Old Acquaintance
There is always something in a landing, if it be only from
the smallest sea-boat — a trouble and a confusion which do
not leave the mind the liberty of which it stands in need in
order to study at the first glance the new locality
presented to it. The movable bridges, the agitated sailors,
the noise of the water on the pebbles, the cries and
importunities of those who wait upon the shores, are
multiplied details of that sensation which is summed up in
one single result — hesitation. It was not, then, till
after standing several minutes on the shore that D’Artagnan
saw upon the port, but more particularly in the interior of
the isle, an immense number of workmen in motion. At his
feet D’Artagnan recognized the five chalands laden with
rough stone he had seen leave the port of Pirial. The
smaller stones were transported to the shore by means of a
chain formed by twenty-five or thirty peasants. The large
stones were loaded on trollies which conveyed them in the
same direction as the others, that is to say, towards the
works of which D’Artagnan could as yet appreciate neither
the strength nor the extent. Everywhere was to be seen an
activity equal to that which Telemachus observed on his
landing at Salentum. D’Artagnan felt a strong inclination to
penetrate into the interior; but he could not, under the
penalty of exciting mistrust, exhibit too much curiosity. He
advanced then little by little, scarcely going beyond the
line formed by the fishermen on the beach, observing
everything, saying nothing, and meeting all suspicion that
might have been excited with a half-silly question or a
polite bow. And yet, whilst his companions carried on their
trade, giving or selling their fish to the workmen or the
inhabitants of the city, D’Artagnan had gained ground by
degrees, and, reassured by the little attention paid to him,
he began to cast an intelligent and confident look upon the
men and things that appeared before his eyes. And his very
first glance fell on certain movements of earth about which
the eye of a soldier could not be mistaken. At the two
extremities of the port, in order that their fires should
converge upon the great axis of the ellipsis formed by the
Page 398
Dumas, Alexandre – Ten Years Later
basin, in the first place, two batteries had been raised,
evidently destined to receive flank pieces, for D’Artagnan
saw the workmen finishing the platform and making ready the
demi-circumference in wood upon which the wheels of the
pieces might turn to embrace every direction over the
epaulement. By the side of each of these batteries other
workmen were strengthening gabions filled with earth, the
lining of another battery. The latter had embrasures, and
the overseer of the works called successively men who, with
cords, tied the saucissons and cut the lozenges and right
angles of turfs destined to retain the matting of the
embrasures. By the activity displayed in these works,
already so far advanced, they might be considered as
finished: they were not yet furnished with their cannons,