nd to watch. Give me
whatever guard you like, chain me if you like, but leave me the house I
inhabit for my prison. The general, on his return, would reproach you, I
swear on the honor of a gentleman, for having displeased him in this."

"So be it, monsieur," said the lieutenant; "return to your abode."

Then they placed over Athos a guard of fifty men, who surrounded his
house, without losing sight of him for a minute.

The secret remained secure, but hours, days passed away without the
general's returning, or without anything being heard of him.

Chapter XXVIII. Smuggling.

Two days after the events we have just related, and while General Monk
was expected every minute in the camp to which he did not return, a
little Dutch _felucca_, manned by eleven men, cast anchor upon the coast
of Scheveningen, nearly within cannon-shot of the port. It was night,
the darkness was great, the tide rose in the darkness; it was a capital
time to land passengers and merchandise.

The road of Scheveningen forms a vast crescent; it is not very deep
and not very safe; therefore, nothing is seen stationed there but large
Flemish hoys, or some of those Dutch barks which fishermen draw up on
the sand on rollers, as the ancients did, according to Virgil. When the
tide is rising, and advancing on land, it is not prudent to bring the
vessels too close in shore, for, if the wind is fresh, the prows are
buried in the sand; and the sand of that coast is spongy; it receives
easily, but does not yield so well. It was on this account, no doubt,
that a boat was detached from the bark, as soon as the latter had cast
anchor, and came with eight sailors, amidst whom was to be seen an
object of an oblong form, a sort of large pannier or bale.

The shore was deserted; the few fishermen inhabiting the down were gone
to bed. The only sentinel that guarded the coast (a coast very badly
guarded, seeing that a landing from large ships was impossible), without
having been able to follow the example of the fishermen, who were gone
to bed, imitated them so far, that he slept at the back of his watch-box
as soundly as they slept in their beds. The only noise to be heard,
then, was the whistling of the night breeze among the bushes and
the brambles of the downs. But the people who were approaching were
doubtless mistrustful people, for this real silence and apparent
solitude did not satisfy them. Their boat, therefore, scarcely as
visible as a dark speck