The fisherman obeyed, but not without notching his cutlass.
When the ash was cut and fashioned into the shape of a
lever, the three men penetrated into the vault.

"Stop where you are," said Monk to the fisherman. "We are
going to dig up some powder; your light may be dangerous."

The man drew back in a sort of terror, and faithfully kept
to the post assigned him, whilst Monk and Athos turned
behind a column at the foot of which, penetrating through a
crack, was a moonbeam, reflected exactly on the stone which
the Comte de la Fere had come so far in search.

"This is it," said Athos, pointing out to the general the
Latin inscription.

"Yes," said Monk.

Then, as if still willing to leave the Frenchman one means
of evasion, --

"Do you not observe that this vault has already been broken
into," continued he, "and that several statues have been
knocked down?"

"My lord, you have, without doubt, heard that the religious
respect of your Scots loves to confide to the statues of the
dead the valuable objects they have possessed during their
lives. Therefore, the soldiers had reason to think that