Part 120 (1/2)
”Well, you alo and see Belle-Isle, but they will not adh”
”You! What for?”
”Why, dame! to sell fish to the corsairs”
”Ha! Corsairs--what do youtwo corsairs built to chase the Dutch and the English, and we sell our fish to the crews of those little vessels”
”Conan to hi-press, bastions, and corsairs! Well, M Fouquet is not an enemy to be despised, as I presu to see him nearer”
”We set out at half-past five,” said the fisherravely
”I anan saw the fishermen haul their barks to nan allowed hi a little fear and aardness, to the a beach-urchins atched hient eyes He laid hi 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 becoroaned nor suffered; that in spite of that horrible tossing and rolling of the bark, to which no hand ier had preserved his presence ofwas sufficiently fortunate
To lines bated with prawn, soles caambols, to bite
Two nets had already been broken by the iers and haddocks; three sea-eels plowed the hold with their sliht theood 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 h to have astonished his iven 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 hadwith 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 sa 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 hat first attracted the attention of the old upon the sea, raising a shi+ning mist round this enchanted isle Little could be seen of it, owing to this dazzling light, but the salient points; every shadoas strongly marked, and cut with bands of darkness the lunan, at the aspect of those masses of black rocks, ”these are fortifications which do not stand in need of any engineer to render a landing difficult How the devil can a landing be effected on that isle which God has defended so completely?”
”This way,” replied the patron of the bark, changing the sail, and i upon the rudder a thich turned the boat in the direction of a pretty little port, quite coquettish, round, and newly battlenan
”You see Locmaria,” replied the fisheror”
”And further on?”
”Sauzon, and then Le Palais”
”Mordioux! It is a world Ah! there are some soldiers”
”There are seventeen hundred men in Belle-Isle, monsieur,” replied the fisherarrison is of twenty conan, stah”
They landed
Chapter LXIX D'Artagnan was toin a landing, if it be only from the smallest sea-boat--a trouble and a confusion which do not leave the mind the liberty of which it stands in need in order to study at the first glance the new locality presented to it The itated sailors, the noise of the water on the pebbles, the cries and importunities of those ait upon the shores, are multiplied details of that sensation which is sule result--hesitation
It was not, then, till after standing several nan saw upon the port, but more particularly in the interior of the isle, an inan recognized the five chalands laden with rough stone he had seen leave the port of Piriac The smaller stones were transported to the shore by means of a chain fore stones were loaded on trollies which conveyed them in the same direction as the others, that is to say, towards the works, of which D'Artagnan could as yet appreciate neither the strength nor the extent Everywhere was to be seen an activity equal to that which Telenan felt a strong inclination to penetrate into the interior; but he could not, under the penalty of exciting mistrust, exhibit too oing beyond the line for, saying nothing, and ht have been excited with a half-silly question or a polite bow
And yet, whilst his co their fish to the workained by degrees, and, reassured by the little attention paid to hient and confident look upon the s that appeared before his eyes And his very first glance fell on certain movements of earth about which the eye of a soldier could not be mistaken At the two extree upon the great axis of the ellipse formed by the basin, in the first place, two batteries had been raised, evidently destined to receive flank pieces, for D'Artagnan saw the work ready the demi-circuht turn to embrace every direction over the epaulement By the side of each of these batteries other work of another battery
The latter had embrasures, and the overseer of the works called successively es and right angles of turfs destined to retain theof the embrasures By the activity displayed in these works, already so far advanced, they ht be considered as finished: they were not yet furnished with their cannons, but the platforites and their madriers all prepared; the earth, beaten carefully, was consolidated; and supposing the artillery to be on the island, in less than two or three days the port nan, when he turned his eyes from the coast batteries to the fortifications of the city, was to see that Belle-Isle was defended by an entirely new system, of which he had often heard the Comte de la Fere speak as a wonderful advance, but of which he had as yet never seen the application These fortifications belonged neither to the Dutch method of Marollais, nor to the French method of the Chevalier Antoine de Ville, but to the systeineer, who about six or eight years previously had quitted the service of Portugal to enter that of France The works had this peculiarity, that instead of rising above the earth, as did the ancient ramparts destined to defend a city from escalades, they, on the contrary, sank into it; and what created the height of the walls was the depth of the ditches It did not take long to nan perceive the superiority of such a systee to cannon