Part 63 (1/2)
”No, sir,” said D'Artagnan; ”and we place ourselves at your orders”
”Well, gentlemen,” resumed Mordaunt, ”we ranted me by the cardinal My shi+p is ready, and had you not come I must have set off without you, for General Croht the lieutenant, ”'tis to General Cromwell that our dispatches are addressed”
”Have you no letter for hi man
”I have one, the seal of which I am not to break till I reach London; but since you tell me to whom it is addressed, 'tis useless to wait till then”
D'Artagnan tore open the envelope of the letter It was directed to ”Monsieur Oliver Crolish Nation”
”Ah!” said D'Artagnan; ”a singular commission”
”Who is this Monsieur Oliver Cromwell?” inquired Porthos
”Formerly a brewer,” replied the Gascon
”Perhaps Mazarin wishes to make a speculation in beer, as we did in straw,” said Porthos
”Coentlemen,” said Mordaunt, impatiently, ”let us depart”
”What!” exclaimed Porthos ”without supper? Cannot Monsieur Cromait a little?”
”Yes, but I?” said Mordaunt
”Well, you,” said Porthos, ”what then?”
”I cannot wait”
”Oh! as to you, that is not my concern, and I shall sup either with or without your per man's eyes kindled in secret, but he restrained hinan, ”you must excuse famished travelers Besides, our supper can't delay you much We will hasten on to the inn; you will meanwhile proceed on foot to the harbor We will take a bite and shall be there as soon as you are”
”Just as you please, gentlemen, provided we set sail,” he said
”The nanan
”The Standard”
”Very well; in half an hour we shall be on board”
And the friends, spurring on their horses, rode to the hotel, the ”Ar
”I say that he doesn't suitto follow Aramis's advice”
”By no er of General Croine, should it be announced to him that we had twisted the neck of his confidant”
”Nevertheless,” said Porthos, ”I have always noticed that Aranan, ”when our es us back to France----”
”Well?”
”Well, we shall see”
At that land,” where they supped with hearty appetite and then at once proceeded to the port
There they found a brig ready to set sail, upon the deck of which they recognized Mordaunt walking up and down inan, whilst the boat was taking the man resembles some one I must have known, but who it was I cannot yet remember”
A few minutes later they were on board, but the eer ht o'clock before they raised anchor
The young man stamped impatiently and ordered all sail to be spread
Porthos, cohts without sleep and a journey of seventy leagues on horseback, retired to his cabin and went to sleep
D'Artagnan, overconance to Mordaunt, walked with him upon the deck and invented a hundred stories to make him talk
Mousqueton was seasick
55 The Scotchman
And now our readers must leave the Standard to sail peaceably, not toward London, where D'Artagnan and Porthos believed they were going, but to Durham, whither Mordaunt had been ordered to repair by the letter he had received during his sojourn at Boulogne, and accompany us to the royalist camp, on this side of the Tyne, near Newcastle
There, placed between two rivers on the borders of Scotland, but still on English soil, the tents of a little arhlanders were listlessly keeping watch The moon, which was partially obscured by heavy clouds, now and then lit up the muskets of the sentinels, or silvered the walls, the roofs, and the spires of the town that Charles I had just surrendered to the parliamentary troops, whilst Oxford and Newark still held out for hiement
At one of the extremities of the camp, near an i a kind of council, presided over by Lord Leven, their co on the turf, his right hand extended over his sword
About fifty paces off, anotherto a Scotch sentinel, and, though a foreigner, he seeiven in the broad Perthshi+re dialect
As the town clock of Newcastle struck one the sleeper awoke, and with all the gestures of ahimself out of deep sleep he looked attentively about hi a little circuit passed close to the cavalier as speaking to the sentinel The former had no doubt finished his questions, for a ht and carelessly followed the same path taken by the first cavalier
In the shadow of a tent the for him
”Well, my dear friend?” said he, in as pure French as has ever been uttered between Rouen and Tours
”Well,know immediately”