The latter dismounted, took the leaders by the bridle, and led them over the velvet sward and the mossy grass of a winding alley, at the bottom of which, on this moonless night, the deep shades formed a curtain blacker than ink.

This done, the man lay down on a slope near his horses, who, on either side, kept nibbling the young oak shoots.
"I am listening," said the young prince to Aramis; "but what are you doing there ?" "I am disarming myself of my pistols, of which we have no further need, monseigneur.".