satisfied themselves with exchanging their conjectures in whispers. Aramis, in fact, so vigilant, so active — Aramis, whose eye, like that of the lynx, watched without ceasing, and saw better by night than by day — Aramis seemed to sleep in this despair of soul. An hour passed thus, during which daylight gradually disappeared, but during which also the sail in view gained so swiftly on the bark, that Goenne, one of the three sailors, ventured to say aloud:

“Monseigneur, we are being chased!”

Aramis made no reply; the ship still gained upon them.

Then, of their own accord, two of the sailors, by the direction of the patron Yves, lowered the sail, in order that that single point upon the surface of the waters should cease to be a