The Three Musketeers (The Modern Library) - Alexandre Dumas [286]
And she raised her arms to survey her bruised wrists.
“Alas,” exclaimed Felton, looking at her beautiful hands and shaking his head sorrowfully.
“Oh, it’s nothing, nothing!” Milady protested. “Now I remember all that happened.” Then she looked around her as if in search of something.
“Here it is!” Felton reassured her, touching the moneybag with his foot.
They drew near the sloop. A sailor on watch hailed the boat, the boat replied.
“What vessel is that?” Milady asked.
“The vessel I hired for you.”
“Where will it take me?”
“Wherever you wish, provided you first put me ashore at Portsmouth.”
“What are you going to do in Portsmouth?”
“I shall carry out Lord Winter’s orders,” Felton replied with a gloomy smile.
“What orders?”
“Then you don’t understand?”
“No, please explain, I beg you.”
“As he mistrusted me, he determined to guard you himself. So he sent me in his place to get Buckingham to sign the order for your deportation.”
“But if he mistrusted you, how did he come to trust you with such an order?”
“How could I be expected to know what papers I was bearing?”
“That is true. And so you are going to Portsmouth?”
“I have no time to lose. Tomorrow is the twenty-third and Buckingham sets sail tomorrow with his fleet.”
“He sets sail tomorrow? Where for?”
“For La Rochelle.”
“He need not necessarily set sail!” Milady cried, her usual presence of mind abandoning her.
“Rest easy: he will not sail.”
Milady started with joy. She could read into the very depths of this young man’s heart and there she saw Buckingham’s death sentence written in all its particulars.
“Felton, you are as great as Judas Maccabaeus!” she thrilled. “If you die, I will die with you. That is all I can say to you.”
“Hush! We must go aboard!”
Indeed the boat was now alongside the sloop. Felton mounted the ladder first and gave his hand to Milady, while the sailors supported her because the sea was still choppy. A moment later they were on the deck.
“Captain,” said Felton, “this is the lady I mentioned. You are to convey her safe and sound to France.”
“On payment of one thousand pistoles,” the captain agreed.
“I have paid you five hundred on account.”
“That’s correct.”
“Here are the other five hundred, Captain,” Milady broke in, reaching for her bag of gold.
“No, Ma’am,” the Captain replied. “I make but one bargain and I have agreed with this young man that the remainder is to be paid me only on arrival in Boulogne.”
“Shall we land there?”
“Safe and sound, Ma’am, as true as my name’s Jack Butler.”
“Well, if you keep your word, instead of five hundred pistoles I will give you a thousand.”
“Hurrah for you then, beautiful lady!” the Captain cried. “May God often send me such passengers as Your Ladyship.”
“Meanwhile,” said Felton, “take us to the little bay of———. As you recall it was agreed you should put in there.”
For sole answer the skipper ordered the necessary manoeuvres and toward seven in the morning the little vessel cast anchor as desired.
During the passage, Felton related everything to Milady: how, instead of going to London, he had chartered the little vessel . . . how he had returned . . . how he had scaled the wall by fastening cramps in the interstices of the stones as he ascended in order to give him foothold . . . finally, how, when he had reached the bars he had made the ladder fast. . . . As for the rest, he concluded modestly, Milady had herself witnessed it.
Milady, for her part, strove to encourage Felton in his project; but at the first words she uttered, she plainly saw that the young fanatic needed rather to be restrained than to be urged on.
It was agreed that Milady would wait for Felton until ten o’clock; if he did not return by then she was to set sail for France. If for some reason he could not join her aboard but was at liberty, he would catch a later ship and rejoin her in France, at the Convent of the Carmelites at Béthune.
LIX
OF WHAT OCCURRED AT PORTSMOUTH ON AUGUST 23, 1628
Kissing her hand casually, Felton took leave of Milady as a brother might do of his sister, bound