“Monseigneur is well,” replied Trinquetaille, a little ashamed of having been reproved by the commander. “I left him in good health, day before yesterday, when I left Maison-Forte.”
“And how is Mlle, des Anbiez?” asked Father Elzear, who had come near.
“Mlle, des Anbiez is very well, father,” replied Luquin.
“Where did you sail from, and where are you going?” asked the commander.
“M. Commander, yesterday I came out of La Ciotat, with three fishing-boats, all armed, in order to cruise two or three leagues from the coasts to discover the pirates.”
“The pirates?”
“Yes, M. Commander. A pirate chebec appeared three days ago; Master Peyrou discovered it. All the coast is alarmed; they expect a descent from the pirates, and they are right, because a tartan from Nice, that I met before this squall, told me that on the east of Corsica had been seen three vessels, and one of them is the Red Galleon of Pog-Reis, the renegade.”
“Pog-Reis!” exclaimed the commander.
“Pog-Reis!” repeated the chevaliers, who surrounded the commander.
“Pog-Reis!” again said Pierre des Anbiez, with an expression of savage satisfaction, as if at last he was about to meet an implacable enemy he had long sought, but who, by some fatality, had always escaped him.