ed on recognizing their small number, in pursuing
their conquerors. When the two discharges had killed ten men, Aramis,
familiar with the windings of the cavern, went to reconnoiter them one
by one, and counted them, for the smoke prevented seeing outside; and
he immediately commanded that the canoe should be rolled as far as the
great stone, the closure of the liberating issue. Porthos collected all
his strength, took the canoe in his arms, and raised it up, whilst the
Bretons made it run rapidly along the rollers. They had descended into
the third compartment; they had arrived at the stone which walled the
outlet. Porthos seized this gigantic stone at its base, applied his
robust shoulder, and gave a heave which made the wall crack. A cloud of
dust fell from the vault, with the ashes of ten thousand generations of
sea birds, whose nests stuck like cement to the rock. At the third shock
the stone gave way, and oscillated for a minute. Porthos, placing his
back against the neighboring rock, made an arch with his foot, which
drove the block out of the calcareous masses which served for hinges and
cramps. The stone fell, and daylight was visible, brilliant, radiant,
flooding the cavern through the opening, and the blue sea appeared to
the delighted Bretons. They began to lift the bark over the barricade.
Twenty more _toises_, and it would glide into the ocean. It was during
this time that the company arrived, was drawn up by the captain, and
disposed for either an escalade or an assault. Aramis watched
over everything, to favor the labors of his friends. He saw the
reinforcements, counted the men, and convinced himself at a single
glance of the insurmountable peril to which fresh combat would expose
them. To escape by sea, at the moment the cavern was about to be
invaded, was impossible. In fact, the daylight which had just been
admitted to the last compartments had exposed to the soldiers the bark
being rolled towards the sea, the two rebels within musket-shot; and
one of their discharges would riddle the boat if it did not kill the
navigators. Besides, allowing everything,--if the bark escaped with the
men on board of it, how could the alarm be suppressed--how could notice
to the royal lighters be prevented? What could hinder the poor canoe,
followed by sea and watched from the shore, from succumbing before the
end of the day? Aramis, digging his hands into his gray hair with rage,
invoked the assistance of God and the as