and he opened the door, with a trembling hand, into the
second compartment, where Mousqueton and Blaisois were
preparing supper.
Here there was evidently nothing to seek or to apprehend and
they passed rapidly to examine the third compartment.
This was the room appropriated to the sailors. Two or three
hammocks hung upon the ceiling, a table and two benches
composed the entire furniture. D’Artagnan picked up two or
three old sails hung on the walls, and meeting nothing to
Page 491
Dumas, Alexandre – Twenty Years After
suspect, regained by the hatchway the deck of the vessel.
“And this room?” he asked, pointing to the captain’s cabin.
“That’s my room,” replied Groslow.
“Open the door.”
The captain obeyed. D’Artagnan stretched out his arm in
which he held the lantern, put his head in at the half
opened door, and seeing that the cabin was nothing better
than a shed:
“Good,” he said. “If there is an army on board it is not
here that it is hidden. Let us see what Porthos has found
for supper.” And thanking the captain, he regained the state
cabin, where his friends were.
Porthos had found nothing, and with him fatigue had
prevailed over hunger. He had fallen asleep and was in a
profound slumber when D’Artagnan returned. Athos and Aramis
were beginning to close their eyes, which they half opened
when their companion came in again.
“Well!” said Aramis.
“All is well; we may sleep tranquilly.”
On this assurance the two friends fell asleep; and
D’Artagnan, who was very weary, bade good-night to Grimaud
and laid himself down in his cloak, with naked sword at his
side, in such a manner that his body barricaded the passage,
and it should be impossible to enter the room without
upsetting him.
71
Port Wine.
In ten minutes the masters slept; not so the servants
—hungry, and more thirsty than hungry.
Blaisois and Mousqueton set themselves to preparing their bed
which consisted of a plank and a valise. On a hanging table,
which swung to and fro with the rolling of the vessel, were
a pot of beer and three glasses.
“This cursed rolling!” said Blaisois. “I know it will serve
me as it did when we came over.”
“And to think,” said Mousqueton, “that we have nothing to
fight seasickness with but barley bread and hop beer. Pah!”
“But where is your wicker flask, Monsieur Mousqueton? Have
you lost it?” asked Blaisois.
“No,” replied Mousqueton, “Parry kept it. Those devilish
Scotchmen are always thirsty. And you, Grimaud,” he said to
his companion, who had just come in after his round with
D’Artagnan, “are you thirsty?”
Page 492
Dumas, Alexandre – Twenty Years After
“As thirsty as a Scotchman!” was Grimaud’s laconic reply.
And he sat down and began to cast up the accounts of his
party, whose money he managed.
“Oh, lackadaisy! I’m beginning to feel queer!” cried
Blaisois.
“If that’s the case,” said Mousqueton, with a learned air,
“take some nourishment.”
“Do you call that nourishment?” said Blaisois, pointing to
the barley bread and pot of beer upon the table.
“Blaisois,” replied Mousqueton, “remember that bread is the
true nourishment of a Frenchman, who is not always able to
get bread, ask Grimaud.”
“Yes, but beer?” asked Blaisois sharply, “is that their true
drink?”
“As to that,” answered Mousqueton, puzzled how to get out of
the difficulty, “I must confess that to me beer is as
disagreeable as wine is to the English.”
“What! Monsieur Mousqueton! The English — do they dislike
wine?”
“They hate it.”
“But I have seen them drink it.”
“As a punishment. For example, an English prince died one
day because they had put him into a butt of Malmsey. I heard
the Chevalier d’Herblay say so.”
“The fool!” cried Blaisois, “I wish I had been in his
place.”
“Thou canst be,” said Grimaud, writing down his figures.
“How?” asked Blaisois, “I can? Explain yourself.”
Grimaud went on with his sum and cast up the whole.
“Port,” he said, extending his hand in the direction of the
first compartment examined by D’Artagnan and himself.
“Eh? eh? ah? Those barrels I saw through the door?”
“Port!” replied Grimaud, beginning a fresh sum.