In ten minutes the masters slept; not so the servants- -hungry, and more thirsty than hungry.

Blaisois and Musqueton set themselves to preparing their bedwhich consisted of a plank and a valise. On a hanging table,which swung to and fro with the rolling of the vessel, werea pot of beer and three glasses.

"This cursed rolling!" said Blaisois. "I know it will serveme as it did when we came over."

"And to think," said Musqueton, "that we have nothing tofight seasickness with but barley bread and hop beer. Pah!"

"But where is your wicker flask, Monsieur Musqueton? Haveyou lost it?" asked Blaisois.

"No," replied Musqueton, "Parry kept it. Those devilishScotchmen are always thirsty. And you, Grimaud," he said tohis companion, who had just come in after his round withD'Artagnan, "are you thirsty?"

"As thirsty as a Scotchman!" was Grimaud's laconic reply.

And he sat down and began to cast up the accounts of hisparty, whose money he managed.

"Oh, lackadaisy! I'm beginning to feel queer!" criedBlaisois.

"If that's the case," said Musqueton, with a learned air,"take some nourishment."

"Do you call that nourishment?" said Blaisois, pointing tothe barley bread and pot of beer upon the table.

"Blaisois," replied Musqueton, "remember that bread is thetrue nourishment of a Frenchman, who is not always able toget bread, ask Grimaud."

"Yes, but beer?" asked Blaisois sharply, "is that their truedrink?"

"As to that," answered Musqueton, puzzled how to get out ofthe difficulty, "I must confess that to me beer is asdisagreeable as wine is to the English."

"What! Monsieur Musqueton! The English - do they dislikewine?"

"They hate it."

"But I have seen them drink it."

"As a punishment. For example, an English prince died oneday because they had put him into a butt of Malmsey. I heardthe Chevalier d'Herblay say so."

"The fool!" cried Blaisois, "I wish I had been in hisplace."

"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 thefirst compartment examined by D'Artagnan and himself.

"Eh? eh? ah? Those barrels I saw through the door?"

"Port!" replied Grimaud, beginning a fresh sum.

"I have heard," said Blaisois, "that port is a very goodwine."

"Excellent!" exclaimed Musqueton, smacking his lips."Excellent; there is port wine in the cellar of Monsieur leBaron de Bracieux."

"Suppose we ask these Englishmen to sell us a bottle," saidthe honest Blaisois.

"Sell!" cried Musqueton, about whom there was a remnant ofhis ancient marauding character left. "One may wellperceive, young man, that you are inexperienced. Why buywhat one can take?"

"Take!" said Blaisois; "covet the goods of your neighbor?That is forbidden, it seems to me."

"Where forbidden?" asked Musqueton.

"In the commandments of God, or of the church, I don't knowwhich. I only know it says, `Thou shalt not covet thyneighbor's goods, nor yet his wife.'"

"That is a child's reason, Monsieur Blaisois," saidMusqueton in his most patronizing manner. "Yes, you talklike a child - I repeat the word. Where have you read inthe Scriptures, I ask you, that the English are yourneighbors?"

"Where, that is true," said Blaisois; "at least, I can't nowrecall it."

"A child's reason - I repeat it," continued Musqueton. "Ifyou had been ten years engaged in war, as Grimaud and I havebeen, my dear Blaisois, you would know the difference thereis between the goods of others and the goods of enemies. Nowan Englishman is an enemy; this port wine belongs to theEnglish, therefore it belongs to us."

"And our masters?" asked Blaisois, stupefied by thisharangue, delivered with an air of profound sagacity, "willthey be of your opinion?"

Musqueton smiled disdainfully.

"I suppose that you think it necessary that I should disturbthe repose of these illustrious lords to say, `Gentlemen,your servant, Musqueton, is thirsty.' What does MonsieurBracieux care, think you, whether I am thirsty or not?"

"'Tis a very expensive wine," said Blaisois, shaking hishead.

"Were it liquid gold, Monsieur Blaisois, our masters wouldnot deny themselves this wine. Know that Monsieur deBracieux is rich enough to drink a tun of port wine, even ifobliged to pay a pistole for every drop." His manner becamemore and more lofty every instant; then he arose and afterfinishing off the beer at one draught he advancedmajestically to the door of the compartment where the winewas. "Ah! locked!" he exclaimed; "these devils of English,how suspicious they are!"

"Locked!" said Blaisois; "ah! the deuce it is; unlucky, formy stomach is getting more and more upset."

"Locked!" repeated Musqueton.

"But," Blaisois ventured to say, "I have heard you relate,Monsieur Musqueton, that once on a time, at Chantilly, youfed your master and yourself by taking partridges in asnare, carp with a line, and bottles with a slipnoose."

"Perfectly true; but there was an airhole in the cellar andthe wine was in bottles. I cannot throw the loop throughthis partition nor move with a pack-thread a cask of winewhich may perhaps weigh two hundred pounds."

"No, but you can take out two or three boards of thepartition," answered Blaisois, "and make a hole in the caskwith a gimlet."

Musqueton opened his great round eyes to the utmost,astonished to find in Blaisois qualities for which he didnot give him credit.

"'Tis true," he said; "but where can I get a chisel to takethe planks out, a gimlet to pierce the cask?"

"Trousers," said Grimaud, still squaring his accounts.

"Ah, yes!" said Musqueton.

Grimaud, in fact, was not only the accountant, but thearmorer of the party; and as he was a man full offorethought, these trousers, carefully rolled up in hisvalise, contained every sort of tool for immediate use.

Musqueton, therefore, was soon provided with tools and hebegan his task. In a few minutes he had extracted threeboards. He tried to pass his body through the aperture, butnot being like the frog in the fable, who thought he waslarger than he really was, he found he must take out threeor four more before he could get through.

He sighed and set to work again.

Grimaud had now finished his accounts. He arose and stoodnear Musqueton.

"I," he said.

"What?" said Musqueton.

"I can pass."

"That is true," said Musqueton, glancing at his friend'slong and thin body, "you will pass easily."

"And he knows the full casks," said Blaisois, "for he hasalready been in the hold with Monsieur le Chevalierd'Artagnan. Let Monsieur Grimaud go in, Monsieur Mouston."

"I could go in as well as Grimaud," said Musqueton, a littlepiqued.

"Yes, but that would take too much time and I am thirsty. Iam getting more and more seasick."

"Go in, then, Grimaud," said Musqueton, handing him the beerpot and gimlet.

"Rinse the glasses," said Grimaud. Then with a friendlygesture toward Musqueton, that he might forgive him forfinishing an enterprise so brilliantly begun by another, heglided like a serpent through the opening and disappeared.

Blaisois was in a state of great excitement; he was inecstasies. Of all the exploits performed since their arrivalin England by the extraordinary men with whom he had thehonor to be associated, this seemed without question to bethe most wonderful.

"You are about to see" said Musqueton, looking at Blaisoiswith an expression of superiority which the latter did noteven think of questioning, "you are about to see, Blaisois,how we old soldiers drink when we are thirsty."

"My cloak," said Grimaud, from the bottom of the hold.

"What do you want?" asked Blaisois.

"My cloak - stop up the aperture with it."

"Why?" asked Blaisois.

"Simpleton!" exclaimed Musqueton; "suppose any one came intothe room."

"Ah, true," cried Blaisois, with evident admiration; "but itwill be dark in the cellar."

"Grimaud always sees, dark or light, night as well as day,"answered Musqueton.

"That is lucky," said Blaisois. "As for me, when I have nocandle I can't take two steps without knocking againstsomething."

"That's because you haven't served," said Musqueton. "Hadyou been in the army you would have been able to pick up aneedle on the floor of a closed oven. But hark! I think someone is coming."

Musqueton made, with a low whistling sound, the sign ofalarm well known to the lackeys in the days of their youth,resumed his place at the table and made a sign to Blaisoisto follow his example.

Blaisois obeyed.

The door of their cabin was opened. Two men, wrapped intheir cloaks, appeared.

"Oho!" said they, "not in bed at a quarter past eleven.That's against all rules. In a quarter of an hour let everyone be in bed and snoring."

These two men then went toward the compartment in whichGrimaud was secreted; opened the door, entered and shut itafter them.

"Ah!" cried Blaisois, "he is lost!"

"Grimaud's a cunning fellow," murmured Musqueton.

They waited for ten minutes, during which time no noise washeard that might indicate that Grimaud was discovered, andat the expiration of that anxious interval the two menreturned, closed the door after them, and repeating theirorders that the servants should go to bed and extinguishtheir lights, disappeared.

"Shall we obey?" asked Blaisois. "All this lookssuspicious."

"They said a quarter of an hour. We still have fiveminutes," replied Musqueton.

"Suppose we warn the masters."

"Let's wait for Grimaud."

"But perhaps they have killed him."

"Grimaud would have cried out."

"You know he is almost dumb."

"We should have heard the blow, then."

"But if he doesn't return?"

"Here he is."

At that very moment Grimaud drew back the cloak which hidthe aperture and came in with his face livid, his eyesstaring wide open with terror, so that the pupils werecontracted almost to nothing, with a large circle of whitearound them. He held in his hand a tankard full of a darksubstance, and approaching the gleam of light shed by thelamp he uttered this single monosyllable: "Oh!" with such anexpression of extreme terror that Musqueton started,alarmed, and Blaisois was near fainting from fright.

Both, however, cast an inquisitive glance into the tankard- it was full of gunpowder.

Convinced that the ship was full of powder instead of havinga cargo of wine, Grimaud hastened to awake D'Artagnan, whohad no sooner beheld him than he perceived that somethingextraordinary had taken place. Imposing silence, Grimaud putout the little night lamp, then knelt down and poured intothe lieutenant's ear a recital melodramatic enough not torequire play of feature to give it pith.

This was the gist of his strange story:

The first barrel that Grimaud had found on passing into thecompartment he struck - it was empty. He passed on toanother - it, also, was empty, but the third which he triedwas, from the dull sound it gave out, evidently full. Atthis point Grimaud stopped and was preparing to make a holewith his gimlet, when he found a spigot; he therefore placedhis tankard under it and turned the spout; something,whatever it was the cask contained, fell silently into thetankard.

Whilst he was thinking that he should first taste the liquorwhich the tankard contained before taking it to hiscompanions, the door of the cellar opened and a man with alantern in his hands and enveloped in a cloak, came andstood just before the hogshead, behind which Grimaud, onhearing him come in, instantly crept. This was Groslow. Hewas accompanied by another man, who carried in his handsomething long and flexible rolled up, resembling a washingline. His face was hidden under the wide brim of his hat.Grimaud, thinking that they had come, as he had, to try theport wine, effaced himself behind his cask and consoledhimself with the reflection that if he were discovered thecrime was not a great one.

"Have you the wick?" asked the one who carried the lantern.

"Here it is," answered the other.

At the voice of this last speaker, Grimaud started and felta shudder creeping through his very marrow. He rose gently,so that his head was just above the round of the barrel, andunder the large hat he recognized the pale face of Mordaunt.

"How long will this fuse burn?" asked this person.

"About five minutes," replied the captain.

That voice also was known to Grimaud. He looked from one tothe other and after Mordaunt he recognized Groslow.

"Then tell the men to be in readiness - don't tell them whynow. When the clock strikes a quarter after midnight collectyour men. Get down into the longboat."

"That is, when I have lighted the match?"

"I will undertake that. I wish to be sure of my revenge. Arethe oars in the boat?"

"Everything is ready."

"'Tis well."

Mordaunt knelt down and fastened one end of the train to thespigot, in order that he might have nothing to do but to setit on fire at the opposite end with the match.

He then arose.

"You hear me - at a quarter past midnight - in fact, intwenty minutes."

"I understand all perfectly, sir," replied Groslow; "butallow me to say there is great danger in what you undertake;would it not be better to intrust one of the men to set fireto the train?"

"My dear Groslow," answered Mordaunt, "you know the Frenchproverb, `Nothing one does not do one's self is ever welldone.' I shall abide by that rule."

Grimaud had heard all this, if he had not understood it. Butwhat he saw made good what he lacked in perfectcomprehension of the language. He had seen the two mortalenemies of the musketeers, had seen Mordaunt adjust thefuse; he had heard the proverb, which Mordaunt had given inFrench. Then he felt and felt again the contents of thetankard he held in his hand; and, instead of the livelyliquor expected by Blaisois and Musqueton, he found beneathhis fingers the grains of some coarse powder.

Mordaunt went away with the captain. At the door he stoppedto listen.

"Do you hear how they sleep?" he asked.

In fact, Porthos could be heard snoring through thepartition.

"'Tis God who gives them into our hands," answered Groslow.

"This time the devil himself shall not save them," rejoinedMordaunt.

And they went out together.