Oh, he! now we may say at last, thank Heaven! he is really dead. Look!"
and D'Artagnan, obliging Athos to look in the direction he pointed,
showed him the body of Mordaunt floating on its back, which, sometimes
submerged, sometimes rising, seemed still to pursue the four friends
with looks of insult and mortal hatred.

At last he sank. Athos had followed him with a glance in which the
deepest melancholy and pity were expressed.

"Bravo! Athos!" cried Aramis, with an emotion very rare in him.

"A capital blow you gave!" cried Porthos.

"I have a son. I wished to live," said Athos.

"In short," said D'Artagnan, "this has been the will of God."

"It was not I who killed him," said Athos in a soft, low tone, "'twas
destiny."

74. How Mousqueton, after being very nearly roasted, had a Narrow Escape
of being eaten.

A deep silence reigned for a long time in the boat after the fearful
scene described.

The moon, which had shone for a short time, disappeared behind the
clouds; every object was again plunged in the obscurity that is so awful
in the deserts and still more so in that liquid desert, the ocean, and
nothing was heard save the whistling of the west wind driving along the
tops of the crested billows.

Porthos was the first to speak.

"I have seen," he said, "many dreadful things, but nothing that ever
agitated me so much as what I have just witnessed. Nevertheless, even in
my present state of perturbation, I protest that I feel happy. I have
a hundred pounds' weight less upon my chest. I breathe more freely." In
fact, Porthos breathed so loud as to do credit to the free play of his
powerful lungs.

"For my part," observed Aramis, "I cannot say the same as you do,
Porthos. I am still terrified to such a degree that I scarcely believe
my eyes. I look around the boat, expecting every moment to see that poor
wretch holding between his hands the poniard plunged into his heart."

"Oh! I feel easy," replied Porthos. "The poniard was pointed at the
sixth rib and buried up to the hilt in his body. I do not reproach you,
Athos, for what you have done. On the contrary, when one aims a blow
that is the regulation way to strike. So now, I breathe again--I am
happy!"

"Don't be in haste to celebrate a victory, Porthos," interposed
D'Artagnan; "never have we incurred a greater danger than we are now
encountering. Men may subdue men--they cannot overcome the elements. We
are now on the sea, at night, withou