List Of Contents | Contents of The Vicomte de Bragelonne, by Alexandre Dumas, Pere
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"_Peste!_  I have a great mind to charge you with the commission,
Menneville; he may know me.  Light! light!"  This dialogue was pronounced
at the back of the tent, and in so low a voice that Monk could not hear a
syllable of it; he was, besides, talking with Athos.  Menneville got
himself ready in the meantime, or rather received the orders of his
leader.

"Well?" said Monk.

"I am ready, general," said the fisherman.

Monk, Athos, and the fisherman left the tent.

"It is impossible!" thought Athos.  "What dream could put that into my
head?"

"Go forward; follow the middle causeway, and stretch out your legs," said
Monk to the fisherman.

They were not twenty paces on their way when the same shadow that had
appeared to enter the tent came out of it again, crawled along as far as
the piles, and, protected by that sort of parapet placed along the
causeway, carefully observed the march of the general.  All three
disappeared in the night haze.  They were walking towards Newcastle, the
white stones of which appeared to them like sepulchers.  After standing
for a few seconds under the porch, they penetrated into the interior.
The door had been broken open by hatchets.  A post of four men slept in
safety in a corner, so certain were they that the attack would not take
place on that side.

"Will not these men be in your way?" said Monk to Athos.

"On the contrary, monsieur, they will assist in rolling out the barrels,
if your honor will permit them."


"You are right."

The post, though fast asleep, roused up at the first steps of the three
visitors amongst the briars and grass that invaded the porch.  Monk gave
the password, and penetrated into the interior of the convent, preceded
by the light.  He walked last, watching the least movement of Athos, his
naked dirk in his sleeve, and ready to plunge it into the back of the
gentleman at the first suspicious gesture he should see him make.  But
Athos, with a firm and sure step, crossed the chambers and courts.

Not a door, not a window was left in the building.  The doors had been
burnt, some on the spot, and the charcoal of them was still jagged with
the action of the fire, which had gone out of itself, powerless, no
doubt, to get to the heart of those massive joints of oak fastened
together with iron nails.  As to the windows, all the panes having been
broken, night birds, alarmed by the torch, flew away through their
holes.  At the same time, gigantic bats began to trace their vast, silent
circles around the intruders, whilst the light of the torch made their
shadows tremble on the high stone walls.  Monk concluded that there could
be no man in the convent, since wild beasts and birds were there still,
and fled away at his approach.

After having passed the rubbish, and torn away more than one branch of
ivy that had made itself a guardian of the solitude, Athos arrived at the
vaults situated beneath the great hall, but the entrance of which was
from the chapel.  There he stopped.  "Here we are, general," said he.

"This, then, is the slab?"

"Yes."

"Ay, and here is the ring - but the ring is sealed into the stone."

"We must have a lever."

"That's a very easy thing to find."

Whilst looking around them, Athos and Monk perceived a little ash of
about three inches in diameter, which had shot up in an angle of the
wall, reaching a window, concealed by its branches.

"Have you a knife?" said Monk to the fisherman.

"Yes, monsieur."

"Cut down this tree, then."

The fisherman obeyed, but not without notching his cutlass.  When the ash
was cut and fashioned into the shape of a lever, the three men penetrated
into the vault.

"Stop where you are," said Monk to the fisherman.  "We are going to dig
up some powder; your light may be dangerous."

The man drew back in a sort of terror, and faithfully kept to the post
assigned him, whilst Monk and Athos turned behind a column at the foot of
which, penetrating through a crack, was a moonbeam, reflected exactly on
the stone which the Comte de la Fere had come so far in search.

"This is it," said Athos, pointing out to the general the Latin
inscription.

"Yes," said Monk.

Then, as if still willing to leave the Frenchman one means of evasion, -

"Do you not observe that this vault has already been broken into,"
continued he, "and that several statues have already been knocked down?"

"My lord, you have, without doubt, heard that the religious respect of
your Scots loves to confide to the statues of the dead the valuable
objects they have possessed during their lives.  Therefore, the soldiers
had reason to think that under the pedestals of the statues which
ornament most of these tombs, a treasure was hidden.  They have
consequently broken down pedestal and statue: but the tomb of the
venerable cannon, with which we have to do, is not distinguished by any
monument.  It is simple, therefore it has been protected by the
superstitious fear which your Puritans have always had of sacrilege.  Not
a morsel of the masonry of this tomb has been chipped off."

"That is true," said Monk.

Athos seized the lever.

"Shall I help you?" said Monk.

"Thank you, my lord; but I am not willing that your honor should lend
your hand to a work of which, perhaps, you would not take the
responsibility if you knew the probable consequences of it."

Monk raised his head.

"What do you mean by that, monsieur?"

"I mean - but that man - "

"Stop," said Monk; "I perceive what you are afraid of.  I shall make a
trial."  Monk turned towards the fisherman, the whole of whose profile
was thrown upon the wall.

"Come here, friend!" said he in English, and in a tone of command.

The fisherman did not stir.

"That is well," continued he: "he does not know English.  Speak to me,
then, in English, if you please, monsieur."

"My lord," replied Athos, "I have frequently seen men in certain
circumstances have sufficient command over themselves not to reply to a
question put to them in a language they understood.  The fisherman is
perhaps more learned than we believe him to be.  Send him away, my lord,
I beg you."

"Decidedly," said Monk, "he wishes to have me alone in this vault.  Never
mind, we shall go through with it; one man is as good as another man; and
we are alone.  My friend," said Monk to the fisherman, "go back up the
stairs we have just descended, and watch that nobody comes to disturb
us."  The fisherman made a sign of obedience.  "Leave your torch," said
Monk; "it would betray your presence, and might procure you a musket-
ball."

The fisherman appeared to appreciate the counsel; he laid down the light,
and disappeared under the vault of the stairs.  Monk took up the torch,
and brought it to the foot of the column.

"Ah, ah!" said he; "money, then, is concealed under this tomb?"

"Yes, my lord; and in five minutes you will no longer doubt it."

At the same time Athos struck a violent blow upon the plaster, which
split, presenting a chink for the point of the lever.  Athos introduced
the bar into this crack, and soon large pieces of plaster yielded, rising
up like rounded slabs.  Then the Comte de la Fere seized the stones and
threw them away with a force that hands so delicate as his might not have
been supposed capable of having.

"My lord," said Athos, "this is plainly the masonry of which I told your
honor."

"Yes; but I do not yet see the casks," said Monk.

"If I had a dagger," said Athos, looking round him, "you should soon see
them, monsieur.  Unfortunately, I left mine in your tent."

"I would willingly offer you mine," said Monk, "but the blade is too thin
for such work."

Athos appeared to look around him for a thing of some kind that might
serve as a substitute for the weapon he desired.  Monk did not lose one
of the movements of his hands, or one of the expressions of his eyes.
"Why do you not ask the fisherman for his cutlass?" said Monk; "he has a
cutlass."

"Ah! that is true," said Athos; "for he cut the tree down with it."  And
he advanced towards the stairs.

"Friend," said he to the fisherman, "throw me down your cutlass, if you
please; I want it."

The noise of the falling weapon sounded on the steps.

"Take it," said Monk; "it is a solid instrument, as I have seen, and a
strong hand might make good use of it."

Athos appeared only to give to the words of Monk the natural and simple
sense under which they were to be heard and understood.  Nor did he
remark, or at least appear to remark, that when he returned with the
weapon, Monk drew back, placing his left hand on the stock of his pistol;
in the right he already held his dirk.  He went to work then, turning his
back to Monk, placing his life in his hands, without possible defense.
He then struck, during several seconds, so skillfully and sharply upon
the intermediary plaster, that it separated into two parts, and Monk was
able to discern two barrels placed end to end, and which their weight
maintained motionless in their chalky envelope.

"My lord," said Athos, "you see that my presentiments have not been
disappointed."

"Yes, monsieur," said Monk, "and I have good reason to believe you are
satisfied; are you not?"

"Doubtless I am; the loss of this money would have been inexpressibly
great to me: but I was certain that God, who protects the good cause,
would not have permitted this gold, which should procure its triumph, to
be diverted to baser purposes.

"You are, upon my honor, as mysterious in your words as in your actions,
monsieur," said Monk.  "Just now as I did not perfectly understand you
when you said that you were not willing to throw upon me the
responsibility of the work we were accomplishing."

"I had reason to say so, my lord."

"And now you speak to me of the good cause.  What do you mean by the
words 'the good cause?'  We are defending at this moment, in England,
five or six causes, which does not prevent every one from considering his
own not only as the good cause, but as the best.  What is yours,
monsieur?  Speak boldly, that we may see if, upon this point, to which
you appear to attach a great importance, we are of the same opinion."

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