I have made you a prisoner, you have followed me, to-day I liberate you, you fly back to your prince.

You can perceive, Porthos, there is not one difficulty in all this." "Do you think so ?" said Porthos.
"I am quite sure of it." "Then why," said the admirable good sense of Porthos, "then why, if we are in such an easy position, why, my friend, do we prepare cannon, muskets, and engines of all sorts?
It seems to me it would be much more simple to say to Captain d'Artagnan: 'My dear friend, we have been mistaken; that error is to be repaired; open the door to us, let us pass through, and we will say good-bye.'" "Ah! that!" said Aramis, shaking his head.
"Why do you say 'that'?
Do you not approve of my plan, my friend ?" "I see a difficulty in it." "What is it ?" "The hypothesis that D'Artagnan may come with orders which will oblige us to defend ourselves." "What! defend ourselves against D'Artagnan?
Folly! Against the good D'Artagnan!" Aramis once more replied by shaking his head.
"Porthos," at length said he, "if I have had the matches lighted and the guns pointed, if I have had the signal of alarm sounded, if I have called every man to his post upon the ramparts, those good ramparts of Belle-Isle which you have so well fortified, it was not for nothing.
Wait to judge; or rather, no, do not wait--" "What can I do ?" "If I knew, my friend, I would have told you." "But there is one thing much more simple than defending ourselves:--a boat, and away for France--where--" "My dear friend," said Aramis, smiling with a strong shade of sadness, "do not let us reason like children; let us be men in council and in execution .-- But, hark! I hear a hail for landing at the port.

Attention, Porthos, serious attention!" "It is D'Artagnan, no doubt," said Porthos, in a voice of thunder, approaching the parapet.
"Yes, it is I," replied the captain of the musketeers, running lightly up the steps of the mole, and gaining rapidly the little esplanade on which his two friends waited for him.

As soon as he came towards them, Porthos and Aramis observed an officer who followed D'Artagnan, treading apparently in his very steps.

The captain stopped upon the stairs of the mole, when half-way up.