alls, and bullets have not
been able to do in forty years?"

That same day they set out for Sainte-Marguerite's, on board a
_chasse-maree_ come from Toulon under orders. The impression they
experienced on landing was a singularly pleasing one. The island seemed
loaded with flowers and fruits. In its cultivated part it served as a
garden for the governor. Orange, pomegranate, and fig trees bent beneath
the weight of their golden or purple fruits. All round this garden, in
the uncultivated parts, red partridges ran about in conveys among the
brambles and tufts of junipers, and at every step of the comte and Raoul
a terrified rabbit quitted his thyme and heath to scuttle away to the
burrow. In fact, this fortunate isle was uninhabited. Flat, offering
nothing but a tiny bay for the convenience of embarkation, and under the
protection of the governor, who went shares with them, smugglers made
use of it as a provisional _entrepot_, at the expense of not killing the
game or devastating the garden. With this compromise, the governor was
in a situation to be satisfied with a garrison of eight men to guard his
fortress, in which twelve cannons accumulated coats of moldy green. The
governor was a sort of happy farmer, harvesting wines, figs, oil,
and oranges, preserving his citrons and _cedrates_ in the sun of his
casemates. The fortress, encircled by a deep ditch, its only guardian,
arose like three heads upon turrets connected with each other by
terraces covered with moss.

Athos and Raoul wandered for some time round the fences of the garden
without finding any one to introduce them to the governor. They ended by
making their own way into the garden. It was at the hottest time of
the day. Each living thing sought its shelter under grass or stone. The
heavens spread their fiery veils as if to stifle all noises, to envelop
all existences; the rabbit under the broom, the fly under the leaf,
slept as the wave did beneath the heavens. Athos saw nothing living but
a soldier, upon the terrace beneath the second and third court, who was
carrying a basket of provisions on his head. This man returned almost
immediately without his basket, and disappeared in the shade of his
sentry-box. Athos supposed he must have been carrying dinner to some
one, and, after having done so, returned to dine himself. All at once
they heard some one call out, and raising their heads, perceived in the
frame of the bars of the window something of a white col