e ship rolled backward, so that he had only to plunge into the water,
which was already up to his waist.

Athos followed him before the felucca rose again on the waves; the cable
which tied the boat to the vessel was then seen plainly rising out of
the sea.

D'Artagnan swam to it and held it, suspending himself by this rope, his
head alone out of water.

In one second Athos joined him.

Then they saw, as the felucca turned, two other heads peeping, those of
Aramis and Grimaud.

"I am uneasy about Blaisois," said Athos; "he can, he says, only swim in
rivers."

"When people can swim at all they can swim anywhere. To the boat! to the
boat!"

"But Porthos, I do not see him."

"Porthos is coming--he swims like Leviathan."

In fact, Porthos did not appear; for a scene, half tragedy and half
comedy, had been performed by him with Mousqueton and Blaisois, who,
frightened by the noise of the sea, by the whistling of the wind, by the
sight of that dark water yawning like a gulf beneath them, shrank back
instead of going forward.

"Come, come!" said Porthos; "jump in."

"But, monsieur," said Mousqueton, "I can't swim; let me stay here."

"And me, too, monsieur," said Blaisois.

"I assure you, I shall be very much in the way in that little boat,"
said Mousqueton.

"And I know I shall drown before reaching it," continued Blaisois.

"Come along! I shall strangle you both if you don't get out," said
Porthos at last, seizing Mousqueton by the throat. "Forward, Blaisois!"

A groan, stifled by the grasp of Porthos, was all the reply of poor
Blaisois, for the giant, taking him neck and heels, plunged him into the
water headforemost, pushing him out of the window as if he had been a
plank.

"Now, Mousqueton," he said, "I hope you don't mean to desert your
master?"

"Ah, sir," replied Mousqueton, his eyes filling with tears, "why did you
re-enter the army? We were all so happy in the Chateau de Pierrefonds!"

And without any other complaint, passive and obedient, either from true
devotion to his master or from the example set by Blaisois, Mousqueton
leaped into the sea headforemost. A sublime action, at all events, for
Mousqueton looked upon himself as dead. But Porthos was not a man to
abandon an old servant, and when Mousqueton rose above the water, blind
as a new-born puppy, he found he was supported by the large hand of
Porthos and that he was thus enabled, without having occasion even to
move, to advance towar