Oh! I tell you, in full sincerity of soul, and your affection will excuse my frankness, but I declare to you I am not happy at Belle-Isle.

No; in good truth, I am not happy!" Aramis breathed a long, but stifled sigh.

"Dear friend," replied he: "that is why it is so sad a thing you have sent the two boats we had left in search of the boats which disappeared two days ago.

If you had not sent them away, we would have departed." "'Departed!' And the orders, Aramis ?" "What orders ?" "_Parbleu!_ Why, the orders you have been constantly, in and out of season, repeating to me--that we were to hold Belle-Isle against the usurper.

You know very well!" "That is true!" murmured Aramis again.
"You see, then, plainly, my friend, that we could not depart; and that the sending away of the boats in search of the others cannot prove prejudicial to us in the very least." Aramis was silent; and his vague glances, luminous as that of an albatross, hovered for a long time over the sea, interrogating space, seeking to pierce the very horizon.
"With all that, Aramis," continued Porthos, who adhered to his idea, and that the more closely from the bishop having apparently endorsed it,--"with all that, you give me no explanation about what can have happened to these unfortunate boats.