"No, sir," said D"Artagnan; "and we place ourselves at your orders."
"Well, gentlemen," resumed Mordaunt, "we must set out without delay, to-day is the last day granted me by the cardinal. My ship is ready, and had you not come I must have set off without you, for General Cromwell expects my return impatiently."
"So!" thought the lieutenant, ""tis to General Cromwell that our dispatches are addressed."
"Have you no letter for him?" asked the young man.
"I have one, the seal of which I am not to break till I reach London; but since you tell me to whom it is addressed, "tis useless to wait till then."
D"Artagnan tore open the envelope of the letter. It was directed to "Monsieur Oliver Cromwell, General of the Army of the English Nation."
"Ah!" said D"Artagnan; "a singular commission."
"Who is this Monsieur Oliver Cromwell?" inquired Porthos.
"Formerly a brewer," replied the Gascon.
"Perhaps Mazarin wishes to make a speculation in beer, as we did in straw," said Porthos.
"Come, come, gentlemen," said Mordaunt, impatiently, "let us depart."
"What!" exclaimed Porthos "without supper? Cannot Monsieur Cromwell wait a little?"
"Yes, but I?" said Mordaunt.
"Well, you," said Porthos, "what then?"
"I cannot wait."
"Oh! as to you, that is not my concern, and I shall sup either with or without your permission."
The young man"s eyes kindled in secret, but he restrained himself.
"Monsieur," said D"Artagnan, "you must excuse famished travelers. Besides, our supper can"t delay you much. We will hasten on to the inn; you will meanwhile proceed on foot to the harbor. We will take a bite and shall be there as soon as you are."
"Just as you please, gentlemen, provided we set sail," he said.
"The name of your ship?" inquired D"Artagnan.
"The Standard."
"Very well; in half an hour we shall be on board."
And the friends, spurring on their horses, rode to the hotel, the "Arms of England."
"What do you say of that young man?" asked D"Artagnan, as they hurried along.
"I say that he doesn"t suit me at all," said Porthos, "and that I feel a strong itching to follow Aramis"s advice."
"By no means, my dear Porthos; that man is a messenger of General Cromwell; it would insure for us a poor reception, I imagine, should it be announced to him that we had twisted the neck of his confidant."
"Nevertheless," said Porthos, "I have always noticed that Aramis gives good advice."
"Listen," returned D"Artagnan, "when our emba.s.sy is finished----"
"Well?"
"If it brings us back to France----"
"Well?"
"Well, we shall see."
At that moment the two friends reached the hotel, "Arms of England," where they supped with hearty appet.i.te and then at once proceeded to the port.
There they found a brig ready to set sail, upon the deck of which they recognized Mordaunt walking up and down impatiently.
"It is singular," said D"Artagnan, whilst the boat was taking them to the Standard, "it is astonishing how that young man resembles some one I must have known, but who it was I cannot yet remember."
A few minutes later they were on board, but the embarkation of the horses was a longer matter than that of the men, and it was eight o"clock before they raised anchor.
The young man stamped impatiently and ordered all sail to be spread.
Porthos, completely used up by three nights without sleep and a journey of seventy leagues on horseback, retired to his cabin and went to sleep.
D"Artagnan, overcoming his repugnance to Mordaunt, walked with him upon the deck and invented a hundred stories to make him talk.
Mousqueton was seasick.
55. The Scotchman.
And now our readers must leave the Standard to sail peaceably, not toward London, where D"Artagnan and Porthos believed they were going, but to Durham, whither Mordaunt had been ordered to repair by the letter he had received during his sojourn at Boulogne, and accompany us to the royalist camp, on this side of the Tyne, near Newcastle.
There, placed between two rivers on the borders of Scotland, but still on English soil, the tents of a little army extended. It was midnight. Some Highlanders were listlessly keeping watch. The moon, which was partially obscured by heavy clouds, now and then lit up the muskets of the sentinels, or silvered the walls, the roofs, and the spires of the town that Charles I. had just surrendered to the parliamentary troops, whilst Oxford and Newark still held out for him in the hopes of coming to some arrangement.
At one of the extremities of the camp, near an immense tent, in which the Scottish officers were holding a kind of council, presided over by Lord Leven, their commander, a man attired as a cavalier lay sleeping on the turf, his right hand extended over his sword.
About fifty paces off, another man, also appareled as a cavalier, was talking to a Scotch sentinel, and, though a foreigner, he seemed to understand without much difficulty the answers given in the broad Perthshire dialect.
As the town clock of Newcastle struck one the sleeper awoke, and with all the gestures of a man rousing himself out of deep sleep he looked attentively about him; perceiving that he was alone he rose and making a little circuit pa.s.sed close to the cavalier who was speaking to the sentinel. The former had no doubt finished his questions, for a moment later he said good-night and carelessly followed the same path taken by the first cavalier.
In the shadow of a tent the former was awaiting him.
"Well, my dear friend?" said he, in as pure French as has ever been uttered between Rouen and Tours.
"Well, my friend, there is not a moment to lose; we must let the king know immediately."
"Why, what is the matter?"
"It would take too long to tell you, besides, you will hear it all directly and the least word dropped here might ruin all. We must go and find Lord Winter."
They both set off to the other end of the camp, but as it did not cover more than a surface of five hundred feet they quickly arrived at the tent they were looking for.
"Tony, is your master sleeping?" said one of the two cavaliers to a servant who was lying in the outer compartment, which served as a kind of ante-room.
"No, monsieur le comte," answered the servant, "I think not; or at least he has not long been so, for he was pacing up and down for more than two hours after he left the king, and the sound of his footsteps has only ceased during the last ten minutes. However, you may look and see," added the lackey, raising the curtained entrance of the tent.
Lord Winter was seated near an aperture, arranged as a window to let in the night air, his eyes mechanically following the course of the moon, intermittently veiled, as we before observed, by heavy clouds. The two friends approached Winter, who, with his head on his hands, was gazing at the heavens; he did not hear them enter and remained in the same att.i.tude till he felt a hand upon his shoulder.
He turned around, recognized Athos and Aramis and held out his hand to them.
"Have you observed," said he to them, "what a blood-red color the moon has to-night?"
"No," replied Athos; "I thought it looked much the same as usual."
"Look, again, chevalier," returned Lord Winter.
"I must own," said Aramis, "I am like the Comte de la Fere--I can see nothing remarkable about it."
"My lord," said Athos, "in a position so precarious as ours we must examine the earth and not the heavens. Have you studied our Scotch troops and have you confidence in them?"
"The Scotch?" inquired Winter. "What Scotch?"
"Ours, egad!" exclaimed Athos. "Those in whom the king has confided--Lord Leven"s Highlanders."
"No," said Winter, then he paused; "but tell me, can you not perceive the russet tint which marks the heavens?"
"Not the least in the world," said Aramis and Athos at once.
"Tell me," continued Winter, always possessed by the same idea, "is there not a tradition in France that Henry IV., the evening before the day he was a.s.sa.s.sinated, when he was playing at chess with M. de Ba.s.sompiere, saw clots of blood upon the chessboard?"
"Yes," said Athos, "and the marechal has often told me so himself."
"Then it was so," murmured Winter, "and the next day Henry IV. was killed."
"But what has this vision of Henry IV. to do with you, my lord?" inquired Aramis.
"Nothing; and indeed I am mad to trouble you with such things, when your coming to my tent at such an hour announces that you are the bearers of important news."
"Yes, my lord," said Athos, "I wish to speak to the king."
"To the king! but the king is asleep."
"I have something important to reveal to him."
"Can it not be put off till to-morrow?"
"He must know it this moment, and perhaps it is already too late."
"Come, then," said Lord Winter.
Lord Winter"s tent was pitched by the side of the royal marquee, a kind of corridor communicating between the two. This corridor was guarded, not by a sentinel, but by a confidential servant, through whom, in case of urgency, Charles could communicate instantly with his faithful subject.
"These gentlemen are with me," said Winter.
The lackey bowed and let them pa.s.s. As he had said, on a camp bed, dressed in his black doublet, booted, unbelted, with his felt hat beside him, lay the king, overcome by sleep and fatigue. They advanced, and Athos, who was the first to enter, gazed a moment in silence on that pale and n.o.ble face, framed in its long and now untidy, matted hair, the blue veins showing through the transparent temples, his eyes seemingly swollen by tears.
Athos sighed deeply; the sigh woke the king, so lightly did he sleep.
He opened his eyes.
"Ah!" said he, raising himself on his elbow, "is it you, Comte de la Fere?"
"Yes, sire," replied Athos.
"You watch while I sleep and you have come to bring me some news?"
"Alas, sire," answered Athos, "your majesty has guessed aright."
"It is bad news?"
"Yes, sire."
"Never mind; the messenger is welcome. You never come to me without conferring pleasure. You whose devotion recognizes neither country nor misfortune, you who are sent to me by Henrietta; whatever news you bring, speak out."
"Sire, Cromwell has arrived this night at Newcastle."
"Ah!" exclaimed the king, "to fight?"
"No, sire, but to buy your majesty."
"What did you say?"
"I said, sire, that four hundred thousand pounds are owing to the Scottish army."
"For unpaid wages; yes, I know it. For the last year my faithful Highlanders have fought for honor alone."
Athos smiled.
"Well, sir, though honor is a fine thing, they are tired of fighting for it, and to-night they have sold you for two hundred thousand pounds--that is to say, for half what is owing them."