the glass to his eye and uttered a cry. He believed
that the vessel, which appeared to be distant about cannon-shot, had
suddenly and at a single bound cleared the distance. But, on withdrawing
the instrument from his eye, he saw that, except the way which the
balancelle had been able to make during that short instant, it was still
at the same distance.

"So," murmured the sailor, "they can see us as we see them."

"They see us," said Aramis, and sank again into his impassibility.

"How--they see us!" said the patron Yves, "impossible!"

"Well, patron, look yourself," said the sailor. And he passed to him the
glass.

"Monseigneur assures me that the devil has nothing to do with this?"
asked the patron.

Aramis shrugged his shoulders.

The patron lifted the glass to his eye. "Oh! monseigneur," said he, "it
is a miracle--they are there; it seems as if I were going to touch them.
Twenty-five men at least! Ah! I see the captain forward. He holds a
glass like this, and is looking at us. Ah! he turns round, and gives an
order; they are rolling a piece of cannon forward--they are charging
it--they are pointing it.--Misericorde! they are firing at us!"

And by a mechanical movement, the patron took the glass off, and the
objects, sent back to the horizon, appeared again in their true aspect.
The vessel was still at the distance of nearly a league, but the
maneuver announced by the patron was not less real. A light cloud of
smoke appeared under the sails, more blue than they, and spreading like
a flower opening; then, at about a mile from the little canoe, they saw
the ball take the crown off two or three waves, dig a white furrow in
the sea, and disappear at the end of that furrow, as inoffensive as the
stone with which, at play, a boy makes ducks and drakes. That was at
once a menace and a warning.

"What is to be done?" asked the patron.

"They will sink us!" said Goenne, "give us absolution, monseigneur!" And
the sailors fell on their knees before him.

"You forget that they can see you," said he.

"That is true!" said the sailors, ashamed of their weakness. "Give us
your orders, monseigneur, we are ready to die for you."

"Let us wait," said Aramis.

"How--let us wait?"

"Yes; do you not see, as you just now said, that if we endeavor to fly
they will sink us?"

"But, perhaps," the patron ventured to say, "perhaps, by the favor of
the night we could escape them."

"Oh!" said Aramis, "they have, little