"Well!" said D'Artagnan to his friends, "such is my position, judge for yourselves." They all three embraced. All three pressed each other in their arms as in the glorious days of their youth.
"What is the meaning of all these rigors?" said Porthos.
"You ought to have some suspicions of what it is," said D'Artagnan.
"Not much, I assure you, my dear captain; for, in fact, I have done nothing, no more has Aramis," hastened the worthy baron to say.
D'Artagnan darted a reproachful look at the prelate, which penetrated that hardened heart.
"Dear Porthos!" cried the bishop of Vannes.
"You see what has been done against you," said D'Artagnan: "interception of all that is coming to or going from Belle-Isle. Your boats are all seized. If you had endeavored to fly, you would have fallen into the hands of the cruisers which plow the sea in all directions, on the watch for you. The king wants you to be taken, and he will take you." And D'Artagnan tore several hairs from his gray mustache. Aramis became somber, Porthos angry.
"My idea was this," continued D'Artagnan; "to make you both come on board, to keep you near me, and restore you your liberty. But now, who can say that when I return to my ship I may not find a superior?—that I may not find secret orders which will take from me my command, and give it to another, who will dispose of me and you without hopes of help?"
"We must remain at Belle-Isle," said Aramis, resolutely; "and I assure you, for my part, I will not surrender easily." Porthos said nothing. D'Artagnan remarked the silence of his friend.
"I have another trial to make of this officer, of this brave fellow who accompanies me, and whose courageous resistance makes me very happy: for it denotes an honest man, who, although an enemy, is a thousand times better than a complaisant coward. Let us try to learn from him what he has the right of doing, and what his orders permit or forbid."