It was more than “a little tossing” that they got when they were once out in the big bay. Great waves chased their stern, and occasionally the boat tumbled down from the crest of a billow with a violent slap. But there was no fear in any of the party to mar the pleasure of the sail. They not only felt perfectly safe with the Captain at the helm, but knew, too, that he would not have taken them out if there had been any danger in so stanch a boat.
“Now you have a fine view of Marseilles,” he said, when they were well out. “Off to the left there the breakwater runs so far that you can barely see the end of it. And to the right of the point is what they call ‘the Corniche.’ That is a long, smooth, winding drive along the shore, and one of the handsomest places to be found anywhere. When you go out there two or three miles you come to the end of the Prado; and by turning into that you come to the heart of the city again.”
“See how old Notre-Dame stands out on the hilltop,” he went on. “You would hardly think that statue of the Virgin, on the summit, was thirty feet high, would you? But it is. They have to gild it every few years to keep it bright, and it costs twelve thousand dollars to cover it with gold-leaf. It is so windy up there that they have to build a little house around it for the painters to work in. That is the favorite church with the Marseilles sailors. Many of them go up there to say their prayers before setting out on a voyage. Then when they are in danger at sea they promise an offering to the Virgin if their lives are saved, and when they get back to port they present a little toy ship to the church, or a tablet to be put on the walls. It is full of such things.”
“Don’t you think, sir, it would be better for them to give their attention to navigating their ship, when they are in danger?” Haines asked.
“Well, that is their form of religion,” the Captain answered; “we must not ridicule them for living up to their faith. But what do you think of this boat for a sailer, boys? It is two miles from the port out to the castle, and we shall be there in five minutes more. Why, she deserves to be taken up to Nice and entered in the spring regattas.”
At this mention of the castle they all looked toward it and saw that it was a large and very old building of stone, with battlements on the top, and a high tower rising far above the rest, the whole standing upon a great rock that rose from the water’s edge to a height of thirty or forty feet.
“That must have been a very strong place before the days of heavy guns,” Kit suggested.
“It was one of the strongest forts in France,” the Captain replied. “For centuries the most important political prisoners were confined here. There was not the least chance for them to escape or for their friends to rescue them. Do you see that high battlement that runs up almost straight from the water? That is where Monte Cristo, according to the story, was thrown into the sea when he pretended to be dead and was sewn up in a sack. And if I’m not mistaken he was no wetter then than we are going to be before we get ashore, for there is a heavy sea running against this rock.
“There is the landing-place, just at the foot of that rocky path,” he continued, standing up in the stern to look about. “It is a wharf of natural rock, with three or four fathoms of water. But there’s no landing there to-day, with this sea breaking over it. We must get around to leeward and try to find a bit of beach.”
The island offers very little in the way of beach, but on the sheltered side they found a smooth slope that answered their purpose, and in a few minutes they were safely on shore and had dragged the boat well up out of harm.