Hold my horse, my friend, if you please." And, throwing the bridle to Grimaud, the king entered the abode of Athos, quite alone, as one equal enters the dwelling of another.

Charles had been informed by the concise explanation of Grimaud,--"At the back, under the chestnut trees;" he left, therefore, the house on the left, and went straight down the path indicated.

The thing was easy; the tops of those noble trees, already covered with leaves and flowers, rose above all the rest.
On arriving under the lozenges, by turns luminous and dark, which checkered the ground of this path according as the trees were more or less in leaf, the young prince perceived a gentleman walking with his arms behind him, apparently plunged in a deep meditation.

Without doubt, he had often had this gentleman described to him, for, without hesitating, Charles II.

walked straight up to him.