“The cable is cut!” he cried, “no boat!”
“How! no boat!” exclaimed Groslow; “it is impossible.”
“ ’Tis true, however,” answered the sailor; “there’s nothing in the wake of the ship; besides, here’s the end of the cable.”
“What’s the matter?” cried Mordaunt, who, coming up out of the hatchway, rushed to the stern, waving his torch.
“Only that our enemies have escaped; they have cut the cord and gone off with the boat.”
Mordaunt bounded with one step to the cabin and kicked open the door.
“Empty!” he exclaimed; “the infernal demons!”
“We must pursue them,” said Groslow, “they can’t be gone far, and we will sink them, passing over them.”
“Yes, but the fire,” ejaculated Mordaunt; “I have lighted it.”
“Ten thousand devils!” cried Groslow, rushing to the hatchway; “perhaps there is still time to save us.”
Mordaunt answered only by a terrible laugh, threw his torch into the sea and plunged in after it. The instant Groslow put his foot upon the hatchway steps the ship opened like the crater of a volcano. A burst of flame rose toward the skies with an explosion like that of a hundred cannon; the air burned, ignited by flaming embers, then the frightful lightning disappeared, the brands sank, one after another, into the abyss, where they were extinguished, and save for a slight vibration in the air, after a few minutes had elapsed one would have thought that nothing had happened.
Only—the felucca had disappeared from the surface of the sea and Groslow and his three sailors were consumed.
The four friends saw all this—not a single detail of this fearful scene escaped them. At one moment, bathed as they were in a flood of brilliant light, which illumined the sea for the space of a league, they might each be seen, each by his own peculiar attitude and manner expressing the awe which, even in their hearts of bronze, they could not help experiencing. Soon a torrent of vivid sparks fell around them—then, at last, the volcano was extinguished—then all was dark and still—the floating bark and heaving ocean.
They sat silent and dejected.
“By Heaven!” at last said Athos, the first to speak, “by this time, I think, all must be over.”
“Here, my lords! save me! help!” cried a voice, whose mournful accents, reaching the four friends, seemed to proceed from some phantom of the ocean.
All looked around; Athos himself stared.
“ ’Tis he! it is his voice!”
All still remained silent, the eyes of all were turned in the direction where the vessel had disappeared, endeavoring in vain to penetrate the darkness. After a minute or two they were able to distinguish a man, who approached them, swimming vigorously.
Athos extended his arm toward him, pointing him out to his companions.
“Yes, yes, I see him well enough,” said d’Artagnan.
“He—again!” cried Porthos, who was breathing like a blacksmith’s bellows; “why, he is made of iron.”
“Oh, my God!” muttered Athos.
Aramis and d’Artagnan whispered to each other.
Mordaunt made several strokes more, and raising his arm in sign of distress above the waves: “Pity, pity on me, gentlemen, in Heaven’s name! my strength is failing me; I am dying.”
The voice that implored aid was so piteous that it awakened pity in the heart of Athos.
“Poor fellow!” he exclaimed.
“Indeed!” said d’Artagnan, “monsters have only to complain to gain your sympathy. I believe he’s swimming toward us. Does he think we are going to take him in? Row, Porthos, row.” And setting the example he plowed his oar into the sea; two strokes took the bark on twenty fathoms further.
“Oh! you will not abandon me! You will not leave me to perish! You will not be pitiless!” cried Mordaunt.
“Ah! ah!” said Porthos to Mordaunt, “I think we have you now, my hero! and there are no doors by which you can escape this time but those of hell.”
“Oh! Porthos!” murmured the Comte de la Fère.
“Oh, pray, for mercy’s sake, don’t fly from me. For pity’s sake!” cried the young man, whose agony-drawn breath at times, when his head went under water, under the wave, exhaled and made the icy waters bubble.
D’Artagnan, however, who had consulted with Aramis, spoke to the poor wretch. “Go away,” he said; “your repentance is too recent to inspire confidence. See! the vessel in which you wished to fry us is still smoking; and the situation in which you are is a bed of roses compared to that in which you wished to place us and in which you have placed Monsieur Groslow and his companions.”
“Sir!” replied Mordaunt, in a tone of deep despair, “my penitence is sincere. Gentlemen, I am young, scarcely twenty-three years old. I was drawn on by a very natural resentment to avenge my mother. You would have done what I did.”
Mordaunt wanted now only two or three fathoms to reach the boat, for the approach of death seemed to give him supernatural strength.
“Alas!” he said, “I am then to die? You are going to kill the son, as you killed the mother! Surely, if I am culpable and if I ask for pardon, I ought to be forgiven.”
Then, as if his strength failed him, he seemed unable to sustain himself above the water and a wave passed over his head, which drowned his voice.
“Oh! this is torture to me,” cried Athos.
Mordaunt reappeared.
“For my part,” said d’Artagnan, “I say this must come to an end; murderer, as you were, of your uncle! executioner, as you were, of King Charles! incendiary! I recommend you to sink forthwith to the bottom of the sea; and if you come another fathom nearer, I’ll stave your wicked head in with this oar.”
“D’Artagnan! d’Artagnan!” cried Athos, “my son, I entreat you; the wretch is dying, and it is horrible to let a man die without extending a hand to save him. I cannot resist doing so; he must live.”
“Zounds!” replied d’Artagnan, “why don’t you give yourself up directly, feet and hands bound, to that wretch? Ah! Comte de la Fère, you wish to perish by
