rooms, attached very
little value to things which tailors and saddlers set great store by.
Anxious to carry home to their wives presents given them by monseigneur,
many were seen bounding joyously along, under the weight of earthen
jars and bottles, gloriously stamped with the arms of the prince. M. de
Beaufort finished by giving away his horses and the hay from his lofts.
He made more than thirty happy with kitchen utensils; and thirty more
with the contents of his cellar. Still further; all these people went
away with the conviction that M. de Beaufort only acted in this manner
to prepare for a new fortune concealed beneath the Arabs' tents. They
repeated to each other, while pillaging his hotel, that he was sent to
Gigelli by the king to reconstruct his lost fortunes; that the treasures
of Africa would be equally divided between the admiral and the king of
France; that these treasures consisted in mines of diamonds, or other
fabulous stones; the gold and silver mines of Mount Atlas did not
even obtain the honor of being named. In addition to the mines to be
worked--which could not be begun till after the campaign--there would
be the booty made by the army. M. de Beaufort would lay his hands on
all the riches pirates had robbed Christendom of since the battle of
Lepanto. The number of millions from these sources defied calculation.
Why, then, should he, who was going in quest of such treasure, set
any store by the poor utensils of his past life? And reciprocally, why
should they spare the property of him who spared it so little himself?

Such was the position of affairs. Athos, with his piercing practiced
glance, saw what was going on at once. He found the admiral of France a
little exalted, for he was rising from a table of fifty covers, at
which the guests had drunk long and deeply to the prosperity of the
expedition; at the conclusion of which repast, the remains, with the
dessert, had been given to the servants, and the empty dishes and
plates to the curious. The prince was intoxicated with his ruin and his
popularity at one and the same time. He had drunk his old wine to the
health of his wine of the future. When he saw Athos and Raoul:

"There is my aide-de-camp being brought to me!" he cried. "Come hither,
comte; come hither, vicomte."

Athos tried to find a passage through the heaps of linen and plate.

"Ah! step over, step over!" said the duke, offering a full glass to
Athos. The latter drank it; Raoul sca