Part 107 (1/2)
Chapter LVII Athos's Vision
When this fainting of Athos had ceased, the coiven way before this superior natural event, dressed himself and ordered his horse, determined to ride to Blois, to open nan, or Aramis In fact, this letter from Aramis informed the Comte de la Fere of the bad success of the expedition of Belle-Isle It gave him sufficient details of the death of Porthos to move the tender and devoted heart of Athos to its innero and pay his friend Porthos a last visit To render this honor to his conan, to prevail upon hie to Belle-Isle, to accoiant he had soto obey that secret influence which was conducting him to eternity by a mysterious road But scarcely had his joyous servants dressed theirfor a journey which entlest horse been saddled and brought to the door, when the father of Raoul felt his head becoive way, and he clearly perceived the i one step further He ordered himself to be carried into the sun; they laid him upon his bed of moss where he passed a full hour before he could recover his spirits Nothing could be more natural than this weakness after then inert repose of the latter days
Athos took a _bouillon_, to give hilassful of the wine he loved the best--that old Anjou wine mentioned by Porthos in his admirable will Then, refreshed, free in ain; but only with the aid of his servants was he able painfully to clio a hundred paces; a shi+vering seized hie!” said he to his _valet de chambre_, who accompanied him
”Let us stop, monsieur--I conjure you!” replied the faithful servant; ”how pale you are getting!”
”That will not preventmy route, now I have once started,”
replied the coain But suddenly, the aniht of his master, stopped A movement, of which Athos was unconscious, had checked the bit
”Soo no further Supportout his arms; ”quick! come closer! I feel my muscles relax--I shall fall from my horse”
The valet had seen the movement made by his master at the moment he received the order He went up to him quickly, received the comte in his arms, and as they were not yet sufficiently distant from the house for the servants, who had remained at the door to watch their master's departure, not to perceive the disorder in the usually regular proceeding of the coestures and voice, and all hastened to his assistance Athos had gone but a few steps on his return, when he felt hith seeo to Blois He made his horse turn round: but, at the aniain into a state of torpor and anguish
”Well! decidedly,” said he, ”it is _willed_ that I should stay at home”
His people flocked around him; they lifted him from his horse, and carried hi was prepared in his chamber, and they put him to bed
”You will be sure to re himself to sleep, ”that I expect letters from Africa this very day”
”Monsieur will no doubt hear with pleasure that Blaisois's son is gone on horseback, to gain an hour over the courier of Blois,” replied his _valet de chambre_
”Thank you,” replied Athos, with his placid smile
The comte fell asleep, but his disturbed slumber resembled torture rather than repose The servant atched hi shadowed on his features Perhaps Athos was drea
The day passed away Blaisois's son returned; the courier had brought no news The comte reckoned the minutes with despair; he shuddered when those otten seized hi of the heart Everybody in the house had given up all hopes of the courier--his hour had long passed Four times the express sent to Blois had repeated his journey, and there was nothing to the address of the comte Athos knew that the courier only arrived once a week Here, then, was a delay of eight ht in this painful persuasion All that a sick , can add of looht The fever rose: it invaded the chest, where the fire soon caught, according to the expression of the physician, who had been brought back froained the head The physician ed it for the time, but left the patient very weak, and without power of action in anything but his brain And yet this redoubtable fever had ceased It besieged with its last palpitations the tense extreht struck
The physician, seeing the incontestable i ordered some prescriptions, and declared that the coe, indefinable state Free to think, his ination penetrated the fields of Africa in the environs of Gigelli, where M de Beaufort ray rocks, rendered green in certain parts by the waters of the sea, when it lashed the shore in storms and tempest Beyond, the shore, strewed over with these rocks like gravestones, ascended, in for mastic-trees and cactus, a sort of small town, full of smoke, confused noises, and terrified movements All of a sudden, from the boso the houses, in covering the entire surface of the town, and increased by degrees, uniting in its red and angry vortices tears, screa arms outstretched to Heaven
There was, for ato pieces, of swords broken, of stones calcined, trees burnt and disappearing It was a strange thing that in this chaos, in which Athos distinguished raised arroans, he did not see one huure The cannon thundered at a distance, musketry madly barked, the seaover the verdant slope But not a soldier to apply the match to the batteries of cannon, not a sailor to assist in e of the flocks After the ruin of the village, the destruction of the forts which doht without the co-operation of a single huan to subside, then diht then caht dark upon the earth, brilliant in the firled the African sky glittered and glea silence ensued, which gave, for a ination of Athos; and as he felt that that which he saas not terminated, he applied e spectacle which his iination had presented This spectacle was soon continued for him A mild paleat first the undulating ripples of the sea, which appeared to have cal the vision of Athos--the moon, we say, shed its diaray rocks, so many silent and attentive phantoms, appeared to raise their heads to exaht of thethe combat, was now streith fallen bodies
An inexpressible shudder of fear and horror seized his soul as he recognized the white and blue unifor pikes and blue handles, and muskets marked with the _fleur-de-lis_ on the butts When he saw all the gaping wounds, looking up to the bright heavens as if to demand back of thee,--when he saw the slaughtered horses, stiff, their tongues hanging out at one side of their ealed around the their furniture and their manes,--when he saw the white horse of M de Beaufort, with his head beaten to pieces, in the first ranks of the dead, Athos passed a cold hand over his brohich he was astonished not to find burning He was convinced by this touch that he was present, as a spectator, without deliriuht upon the shores of Gigelli by the army of the expedition, which he had seen leave the coast of France and disappear upon the diesture the last cannon-shot fired by the duke as a signal of farewell to his country
Who can paint the ilant eye, these effigies of clay-cold soldiers, and exa them? Who can express the intoxication of joy hich Athos bowed before God, and thanked Hi the dead?
In fact, fallen in their ranks, stiff, icy, the dead, still recognizable with ease, seemed to turn with complacency towards the Co his sad review But yet, he was astonished, while viewing all these bodies, not to perceive the survivors To such a point did the illusion extend, that this vision was for hie made by the father into Africa, to obtain ued, therefore, with having traversed seas and continents, he sought repose under one of the tents sheltered behind a rock, on the top of which floated the white _fleur-de-lised_ pennon He looked for a soldier to conduct him to the tent of M de Beaufort Then, while his eye andering over the plain, turning on all sides, he sahite forure was clothed in the costume of an officer; it held in its hand a broken sword; it advanced slowly towards Athos, who, stopping short and fixing his eyes upon it, neither spoke nor moved, but wished to open his arnized Raoul The comte attempted to utter a cry, but it was stifled in his throat Raoul, with a gesture, directed hi back by degrees, without Athos being able to see his legs move The comte, still paler than Raoul, followed his son, painfully traversing briers and bushes, stones and ditches, Raoul not appearing to touch the earth, no obstacle seehtness of his march
The coued, soon stopped, exhausted Raoul still continued to beckon him to follow hith,th he gained the crest of the hill, and saw, thrown out in black, upon the horizon whitened by the moon, the aerial foret closer to his beloved son upon the plateau, and the latter also stretched out his; but suddenly, as if the young , he left the earth, and Athos saw the clear blue sky shi+ne between the feet of his child and the ground of the hill Raoul rose insensibly into the void, sesture:--he departed towards heaven