e a battle, keep at a distance from it, I beseech you.
I know the French delight in such amusements,--you might take a fancy to
see how we fight, and you might receive some chance shot. Our Scotchmen
are very bad marksmen, and I do not wish that a worthy gentleman like
you should return to France wounded. Nor should I like to be obliged
myself, to send to your prince his million left here by you, for then it
would be said, and with some reason, that I paid the Pretender to enable
him to make war against the parliament. Go, then, monsieur, and let it
be done as has been agreed upon."

"Ah, my lord," said Athos, "what joy it would give me to be the first
that penetrated to the noble heart which beats beneath that cloak!"

"You think, then, that I have secrets," said Monk, without changing the
half cheerful expression of his countenance. "Why, monsieur, what
secret can you expect to find in the hollow head of a soldier? But it is
getting late, and our torch is almost out; let us call our man."

"Hola!" cried Monk in French, approaching the stairs; "hola! fisherman!"

The fisherman, benumbed by the cold night air, replied in a hoarse
voice, asking what they wanted of him.

"Go to the post," said Monk, "and order a sergeant, in the name of
General Monk, to come here immediately."

This was a commission easily performed; for the sergeant, uneasy at the
general's being in that desolate abbey, had drawn nearer by degrees,
and was not much further off than the fisherman. The general's order was
therefore heard by him, and he hastened to obey it.

"Get a horse and two men," said Monk.

"A horse and two men?" repeated the sergeant.

"Yes," replied Monk. "Have you any means of getting a horse with a
pack-saddle or two paniers?"

"No doubt, at a hundred paces off, in the Scotch camp."

"Very well."

"What shall I do with the horse, general?"

"Look here."

The sergeant descended the three steps which separated him from Monk,
and came into the vault.

"You see," said Monk, "that gentleman yonder?"

"Yes, general."

"And you see these two casks?"

"Perfectly."

"They are two casks, one containing powder, and the other balls; I wish
these casks to be transported to the little hamlet at the mouth of the
river, and which I intend to occupy to-morrow with two hundred muskets.
You understand that the commission is a secret one, for it is a movement
that may decide the fate of the battle."

"Oh, general!" murmured