The hostelry of "Le Grand Monarque" was situated in a littlestreet parallel to the port without looking out upon theport itself. Some lanes cut - as steps cut the twoparallels of the ladder - the two great straight lines ofthe port and the street. By these lanes passengers camesuddenly from the port into the street, or from the streeton to the port. D'Artagnan, arrived at the port, took one ofthese lanes, and came out in front of the hostelry of "LeGrand Monarque." The moment was well chosen and might remindD'Artagnan of his start in life at the hostelry of the"Franc-Meunier" at Meung. Some sailors who had been playingat dice had started a quarrel, and were threatening eachother furiously. The host, hostess, and two lads werewatching with anxiety the circle of these angry gamblers,from the midst of which war seemed ready to break forth,bristling with knives and hatchets. The play, nevertheless,was continued. A stone bench was occupied by two men, whoappeared thence to watch the door; four tables, placed atthe back of the common chamber, were occupied by eight otherindividuals. Neither the men at the door, nor those at thetables, took any part in the play or the quarrel. D'Artagnanrecognized his ten men in these cold, indifferentspectators. The quarrel went on increasing. Every passionhas, like the sea, its tide which ascends and descends.Reaching the climax of passion, one sailor overturned thetable and the money which was upon it. The table fell, andthe money rolled about. In an instant all belonging to thehostelry threw themselves upon the stakes, and many a pieceof silver was picked up by people who stole away whilst thesailors were scuffling with each other.

The two men on the bench and the eight at the tables,although they seemed perfect strangers to each other, theseten men alone, we say, appeared to have agreed to remainimpassible amidst the cries of fury and the chinking ofmoney. Two only contented themselves with pushing with theirfeet combatants who came under their table. Two others,rather than take part in this disturbance, buried theirhands in their pockets; and another two jumped upon thetable they occupied, as people do to avoid being submergedby overflowing water.

"Come, come," said D'Artagnan to himself, not having lostone of the details we have related, "this is a very fairgathering - circumspect, calm, accustomed to disturbance,acquainted with blows! Peste! I have been lucky."

All at once his attention was called to a particular part ofthe room. The two men who had pushed the strugglers withtheir feet were assailed with abuse by the sailors, who hadbecome reconciled. One of them, half drunk with passion, andquite drunk with beer, came, in a menacing manner, to demandof the shorter of these two sages by what right he hadtouched with his foot creatures of the good God, who werenot dogs. And whilst putting this question, in order to makeit more direct, he applied his great fist to the nose ofD'Artagnan's recruit.

This man became pale, without its being to be discernedwhether his pallor arose from anger or from fear; seeingwhich, the sailor concluded it was from fear, and raised hisfist with the manifest intention of letting it fall upon thehead of the stranger. But though the threatened man did notappear to move, he dealt the sailor such a severe blow inthe stomach that he sent him rolling and howling to theother side of the room. At the same instant, rallied by theesprit de corps, all the comrades of the conquered man fellupon the conqueror.

The latter, with the same coolness of which he had givenproof, without committing the imprudence of touching hisweapons, took up a beer-pot with a pewter-lid, and knockeddown two or three of his assailants; then, as he was aboutto yield to numbers, the seven other silent men at thetables, who had not stirred, perceived that their cause wasat stake, and came to the rescue. At the same time, the twoindifferent spectators at the door turned round withfrowning brows, indicating their evident intention of takingthe enemy in the rear, if the enemy did not cease theiraggressions.

The host, his helpers, and two watchmen who were passing,and who from curiosity had penetrated too far into the room,were mixed up in the tumult and showered with blows. TheParisians hit like Cyclops, with an ensemble and a tacticdelightful to behold. At length, obliged to beat a retreatbefore superior numbers, they formed an intrenchment behindthe large table, which they raised by main force; whilst thetwo others, arming themselves each with a trestle, and usingit like a great sledge-hammer, knocked down at a blow eightsailors upon whose heads they had brought their monstrouscatapult in play. The floor was already strewn with wounded,and the room filled with cries and dust, when D'Artagnan,satisfied with the test, advanced, sword in hand, andstriking with the pommel every head that came in his way, heuttered a vigorous hola! which put an instantaneous end tothe conflict. A great backflood directly took place from thecenter to the sides of the room, so that D'Artagnan foundhimself isolated and dominator.

"What is all this about?" then demanded he of the assembly,with the majestic tone of Neptune pronouncing the Quos ego.

At the very instant, at the first sound of his voice, tocarry on the Virgilian metaphor, D'Artagnan's recruits,recognizing each his sovereign lord, discontinued theirplank-fighting and trestle blows. On their side, thesailors, seeing that long naked sword, that martial air, andthe agile arm which came to the rescue of their enemies, inthe person of a man who seemed accustomed to command, thesailors picked up their wounded and their pitchers. TheParisians wiped their brows, and viewed their leader withrespect. D'Artagnan was loaded with thanks by the host of"Le Grand Monarque." He received them like a man who knowsthat nothing is being offered that does not belong to him,and then said he would go and walk upon the port till supperwas ready. Immediately each of the recruits, who understoodthe summons, took his hat, brushed the dust off his clothes,and followed D'Artagnan. But D'Artagnan whilst walking andobserving, took care not to stop; he directed his coursetowards the downs, and the ten men - surprised at findingthemselves going in the track of each other, uneasy atseeing on their right, on their left, and behind them,companions upon whom they had not reckoned - followed him,casting furtive glances at each other. It was not till hehad arrived at the hollow part of the deepest down thatD'Artagnan, smiling to see them outdone, turned towardsthem, making a friendly sign with his hand.

"Eh! come, come, gentlemen," said he, "let us not devoureach other; you are made to live together, to understandeach other in all respects, and not to devour one another."

Instantly all hesitation ceased; the men breathed as if theyhad been taken out of a coffin, and examined each othercomplacently. After this examination they turned their eyestowards their leader, who had long been acquainted with theart of speaking to men of that class, and who improvised thefollowing little speech, pronounced with an energy trulyGascon:

"Gentlemen, you all know who I am. I have engaged you fromknowing you to be brave, and willing to associate you withme in a glorious enterprise. Imagine that in laboring for meyou labor for the king. I only warn you that if you allowanything of this supposition to appear, I shall be forced tocrack your skulls immediately, in the manner most convenientto me. You are not ignorant, gentlemen, that state secretsare like a mortal poison: as long as that poison is in itsbox and the box is closed, it is not injurious; out of thebox, it kills. Now draw near and you shall know as much ofthis secret as I am able to tell you." All drew close to himwith an expression of curiosity. "Approach," continuedD'Artagnan, "and let not the bird which passes over ourheads, the rabbit which sports on the downs, the fish whichbounds from the waters, hear us. Our business is to learnand to report to monsieur le surintendant of the finances towhat extent English smuggling is injurious to the Frenchmerchants. I shall enter every place, and see everything. Weare poor Picard fishermen, thrown upon the coast by a storm.It is certain that we must sell fish, neither more nor less,like true fishermen. Only people might guess who we are, andmight molest us; it is therefore necessary that we should bein a condition to defend ourselves. And this is why I haveselected men of spirit and courage. We shall lead a steadylife, and not incur much danger; seeing that we have behindus a powerful protector, thanks to whom no embarrassment ispossible. One thing alone puzzles me; but I hope that aftera short explanation, you will relieve me from thatdifficulty. The thing which puzzles me is taking with me acrew of stupid fishermen, which crew will annoy meimmensely, whilst if, by chance, there were among you anywho have seen the sea - - "

"Oh! don't let that trouble you," said one of the recruits;"I was a prisoner among the pirates of Tunis three years,and can maneuver a boat like an admiral."

"See," said D'Artagnan, "what an admirable thing chance is!"D'Artagnan pronounced these words with an indefinable toneof feigned bonhomie, for he knew very well that the victimof pirates was an old corsair, and had engaged him inconsequence of that knowledge. But D'Artagnan never saidmore than there was need to say, in order to leave people indoubt. He paid himself with the explanation, and welcomedthe effect, without appearing to be preoccupied with thecause.

"And I," said a second, "I, by chance, had an uncle whodirected the works of the port of La Rochelle. When quite achild, I played about the boats, and I know how to handle anoar or a sail as well as the best Ponantais sailor." Thelatter did not lie much more than the first, for he hadrowed on board his majesty's galleys six years, at Ciotat.Two others were more frank: they confessed honestly thatthey had served on board a vessel as soldiers on punishment,and did not blush for it. D'Artagnan found himself, then,the leader of ten men of war and four sailors, having atonce a land army and a sea force, which would have earnedthe pride of Planchet to its height, if Planchet had knownthe details.

Nothing was now left but arranging the general orders, andD'Artagnan gave them with precision. He enjoined his men tobe ready to set out for the Hague, some following the coastwhich leads to Breskens, others the road to Antwerp. Therendezvous was given, by calculating each day's march, afortnight from that time upon the chief place at the Hague.D'Artagnan recommended his men to go in couples, as theyliked best, from sympathy. He himself selected from amongthose with the least disreputable look, two guards whom hehad formerly known, and whose only faults were beingdrunkards and gamblers. These men had not entirely lost allideas of civilization, and under proper garments theirhearts would beat again. D'Artagnan, not to create anyjealousy with the others, made the rest go forward. He kepthis two selected ones, clothed them from his own wardrobe,and set out with them.

It was to these two, whom he seemed to honor with anabsolute confidence, that D'Artagnan imparted a falsesecret, destined to secure the success of the expedition. Heconfessed to them that the object was not to learn to whatextent the French merchants were injured by Englishsmuggling, but to learn how far French smuggling could annoyEnglish trade. These men appeared convinced; they wereeffectively so. D'Artagnan was quite sure that at the firstdebauch when thoroughly drunk, one of the two would divulgethe secret to the whole band. His game appeared infallible.

A fortnight after all we have said had taken place atCalais, the whole troop assembled at the Hague.

Then D'Artagnan perceived that all his men, with remarkableintelligence, had already travestied themselves intosailors, more or less ill-treated by the sea. D'Artagnanleft them to sleep in a den in Newkerke street, whilst helodged comfortably upon the Grand Canal. He learned that theking of England had come back to his old ally, William II.of Nassau, stadtholder of Holland. He learned also that therefusal of Louis XIV. had a little cooled the protectionafforded him up to that time, and in consequence he had goneto reside in a little village house at Scheveningen,situated in the downs, on the sea-shore, about a league fromthe Hague.

There, it was said, the unfortunate banished king consoledhimself in his exile, by looking, with the melancholypeculiar to the princes of his race, at that immense NorthSea, which separated him from his England, as it hadformerly separated Mary Stuart from France. There behind thetrees of the beautiful wood of Scheveningen on the fine sandupon which grows the golden broom of the down, Charles II.vegetated as it did, more unfortunate, for he had life andthought, and he hoped and despaired by turns.

D'Artagnan went once as far as Scheveningen, in order to becertain that all was true that was said of the king. Hebeheld Charles II., pensive and alone, coming out of alittle door opening into the wood, and walking on the beachin the setting sun, without even attracting the attention ofthe fishermen, who, on their return in the evening, drew,like the ancient mariners of the Archipelago, their barks upupon the sand of the shore.

D'Artagnan recognized the king; he saw him fix hismelancholy look upon the immense extent of the waters, andabsorb upon his pale countenance the red rays of the sunalready cut by the black line of the horizon. Then Charlesreturned to his isolated abode, always alone, slow and sad,amusing himself with making the friable and moving sandcreak beneath his feet.

That very evening D'Artagnan hired for a thousand livres afishing-boat worth four thousand. He paid a thousand livresdown, and deposited the three thousand with a Burgomaster,after which he brought on board without their being seen,the ten men who formed his land army; and with the risingtide, at three o'clock in the morning, he got into the opensea, maneuvering ostensibly with the four others, anddepending upon the science of his galley slave as upon thatof the first pilot of the port.