who watched him with their large intelligent eyes. He laid
himself down upon a folded sail, not interfering with anything whilst
the bark prepared for sea; and, with its large square sail, it was
fairly out within two hours. The fishermen, who prosecuted their
occupation as they proceeded, did not perceive that their passenger had
not become pale, neither groaned nor suffered; that in spite of that
horrible tossing and rolling of the bark, to which no hand imparted
direction, the novice passenger had preserved his presence of mind and
his appetite. They fished, and their fishing was sufficiently fortunate.
To lines bated with prawn, soles came, with numerous gambols, to bite.
Two nets had already been broken by the immense weight of congers and
haddocks; three sea-eels plowed the hold with their slimy folds and
their dying contortions. D'Artagnan brought them good luck; they told
him so. The soldier found the occupation so pleasant, that he put his
hand to the work--that is to say, to the lines--and uttered roars of
joy, and _mordioux_ enough to have astonished his musketeers themselves,
every time that a shock given to his line by the captured fish required
the play of the muscles of his arm, and the employment of his best
dexterity. The party of pleasure had made him forget his diplomatic
mission. He was struggling with a very large conger, and holding fast
with one hand to the side of the vessel, in order to seize with the
other the gaping jowl of his antagonist, when the master said to him,
"Take care they don't see you from Belle-Isle!"

These words produced the same effect upon D'Artagnan as the hissing of
the first bullet on a day of battle; he let go of both line and conger,
which, dragging each other, returned again to the water. D'Artagnan
perceived, within half a league at most, the blue and marked profile
of the rocks of Belle-Isle, dominated by the majestic whiteness of the
castle. In the distance, the land with its forests and verdant plains;
cattle on the grass. This was what first attracted the attention of
the musketeer. The sun darted its rays of gold upon the sea, raising
a shining mist round this enchanted isle. Little could be seen of it,
owing to this dazzling light, but the salient points; every shadow was
strongly marked, and cut with bands of darkness the luminous fields and
walls. "Eh! eh!" said D'Artagnan, at the aspect of those masses of
black rocks, "these are fortifications which do not stan