for two seconds, be distinguished. It was a short but a splendid
spectacle, that of this giant, pale, bloody, his countenance lighted by
the fire of the match burning in surrounding darkness! The soldiers saw
him--they saw the barrel he held in his hand--they at once understood
what was going to happen. Then, these men, already filled with terror at
the sight of what had been accomplished--filled with terror at thinking
of what was going to be accomplished--threw forth together one shriek of
agony. Some endeavored to fly, but they encountered the third brigade
which barred their passage; others mechanically took aim and attempted
to fire their discharged muskets; others fell upon their knees. Two or
three officers cried out to Porthos to promise him his liberty if he
would spare their lives. The lieutenant of the third brigade commanded
his men to fire; but the guards had before them their terrified
companions, who served as a living rampart for Porthos. We have said
that the light produced by the spark and the match did not last more
than two seconds; but during these two seconds this is what it
illumined--in the first place, the giant, enlarged in the darkness;
then, at ten paces from him, a heap of bleeding bodies, crushed,
mutilated, in the midst of whom still lived some last struggle of agony,
which lifted the mass as a last respiration raises the sides of a
shapeless monster expiring in the night. Every breath of Porthos, while
enlivening the match, sent toward this heap of bodies a sulphureous hue
mingled with streaks of purple. In addition to this principal group,
scattered about the grotto, as the chance of death or the surprise of
the blow had stretched them, some isolated bodies seemed to threaten by
their gaping wounds. Above the ground, soaked by pools of blood, rose,
heavy and sparkling, the short, thick pillars of the cavern, of which
the strongly marked shades threw out the luminous particles. And all
this was seen by the tremulous light of a match attached to a barrel of
powder, that is to say, a torch which, while throwing a light upon the
dead past, showed the death to come.

As I have said, this spectacle did not last above two seconds. During
this short space of time, an officer of the third brigade got together
eight men armed with muskets, and, through an opening, ordered them to
fire upon Porthos. But they who received the order to fire trembled so
that three guards fell by the discharge, and the