ase me to do
sometimes, there would not be in the camp the shadow of uneasiness or
disorder. I am the magnet--the sympathetic and natural strength of the
English. All those scattered irons that will be sent against me I shall
attract to myself. Lambert, at this moment, commands eighteen thousand
deserters; but I have never mentioned that to my officers, you may
easily suppose. Nothing is more useful to an army than the expectation
of a coming battle; everybody is awake--everybody is on guard. I tell
you this that you may live in perfect security. Do not be in a hurry,
then, to cross the seas; within a week there will be something fresh,
either a battle or an accommodation. Then, as you have judged me to be
an honorable man, and confided your secret to me, I have to thank you
for this confidence, and I shall come and pay you a visit or send for
you. Do not go before I send word. I repeat the request."

"I promise you, general," cried Athos, with a joy so great, that in
spite of all his circumspection, he could not prevent its sparkling in
his eyes.

Monk surprised this flash, and immediately extinguished it by one of
those silent smiles which always caused his interlocutors to know they
had made no inroad on his mind.

"Then, my lord, it is a week that you desire me to wait?"

"A week? yes, monsieur."

"And during those days what shall I do?"

"If there should be a battle, keep at a distance from it, I beseech you.
I know the French delight in such amusements;--you might take a fancy to
see how we fight, and you might receive some chance shot. Our Scotsmen
are very bad marksmen, and I do not wish that a worthy gentleman like
you should return to France wounded. Nor should I like to be obliged,
myself, to send to your prince his million left here by you; for then it
would be said, and with some reason, that I paid the Pretender to enable
him to make war against the parliament. Go, then, monsieur, and let it
be done as has been agreed upon."

"Ah, my lord," said Athos, "what joy it would give me to be the first
that penetrated to the noble heart which beats beneath that cloak!"

"You think, then, that I have secrets," said Monk, without changing the
half cheerful expression of his countenance. "Why, monsieur, what
secret can you expect to find in the hollow head of a soldier? But it is
getting late, and our torch is almost out; let us call our man."

"_Hola!_" cried Monk in French, approaching the stairs; "_hola!