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."

Chapter IX. The Tempter.

"My prince," said Aramis, turning in the carriage towards his companion,
"weak creature as I am, so unpretending in genius, so low in the scale
of intelligent beings, it has never yet happened to me to converse with
a man without penetrating his thoughts through that living mask which
has been thrown over our mind, in order to retain its expression. But
to-night, in this darkness, in the reserve which you maintain, I can
read nothing on your features, and something tells me that I shall have
great difficulty in wresting from you a sincere declaration. I beseech
you, then, not for love of me, for subjects should never weigh as
anything in the balance which princes hold, but for love of yourself,
to retain every syllable, every inflexion which, under the present most
grave circumstances, will all have a sense and value as important as any
every uttered in the world."

"I listen," replied the young prince, "decidedly, without either eagerly
seeking or fearing anything you are about to say to me." And he buried
himself still deeper in the thick cushions of the carriage, trying to
deprive his companion not only of the sight of him, but even of the very
idea of his presence.

Black was the darkness which fell wide and dense from the summits of the
intertwining trees. The carriage, covered in by this prodigious roof,
would not have received a particle of light, not even if a ray could
have struggled through the wreaths of mist that were already rising in
the avenue.

"Monseigneur," resumed Aramis, "you know the history of the government
which to-day controls France. The king issued from an infancy imprisoned
like yours, obscure as yours, and confined as yours; only, instead
of ending, like yourself, this slavery in a prison, this obscurity in
solitude, these straightened circumstances in concealment, he was
fain to bear all these miseries, humiliations, and distresses, in full
daylight, under the pitiless sun of royalty; on an elevation flooded
with light, where every stain appea