kers occupy it with me;
it is their bark which brought me ashore."

"But your own vessel, monsieur?"

"My vessel is at anchor, a quarter of a mile at sea, and waits for me."

"You do not think, however, of setting out immediately?"

"My lord, I shall try once more to convince your honor."

"You will not succeed," replied Monk; "but it is of consequence that you
should depart from Newcastle without leaving of your passage the least
suspicion that might prove injurious to me or you. To-morrow my officers
think Lambert will attack me. I, on the contrary, am convinced that he
will not stir; it is in my opinion impossible. Lambert leads an army
devoid of homogeneous principles, and there is no possible army with
such elements. I have taught my soldiers to consider my authority
subordinate to another, therefore after me, round me, and beneath me
they still look for something. It would result that if I were dead,
whatever might happen, my army would not be demoralized all at once;
it results, that if I choose to absent myself, for instance, as it does
please me to do sometimes, there would not be in the camp the shadow
of uneasiness or disorder. I am the magnet--the sympathetic and natural
strength of the English. All those scattered irons that will be sent
against me I shall attract to myself. Lambert, at this moment, commands
eighteen thousand deserters, but I have never mentioned that to my
officers, you may easily suppose. Nothing is more useful to an army than
the expectation of a coming battle; everybody is awake--everybody is on
guard. I tell you this that you may live in perfect security. Do not
be in a hurry, then, to cross the seas; within a week there will be
something fresh, either a battle or an accomodation. Then, as you have
judged me to be a honorable man, and confided your secret to me, I have
to thank you for this confidence, and I shall come and pay you a
visit or send for you. Do not go before I send you word. I repeat the
request."

"I promise you, general," cried Athos, with a joy so great, that in
spite of all his circumspection, he could not prevent its sparkling in
his eyes.

Monk surprised this flash, and immediately extinguished it by one of
those silent smiles which always caused his interlocutors to know they
had made no inroad on his mind.

"Then, my lord, it is a week that you desire me to wait?"

"A week? yes, monsieur."

"And during these days what shall I do?"

"If there should b