Looking up the valley, they perceived lines of horses, picqueted by a village but a few hundred yards away.
"Those were the voices I thought I heard, no doubt, when we first came here," Jack said.

"It's lucky we found these trees, for if we had wandered about a little longer, we might have stumbled into the middle of them.

Now, sir, we had better finish the biscuits we put aside for breakfast, and be off.

It is quite evident the direct way to the camp is close to us." Saddling up their horses, and putting on the Cossack black sheepskin caps and long coats, and taking the lances and carbines, the latter of which were carried across the saddle before them, they mounted their ponies and rode off, quitting the wood at such a point that it formed a screen between them and the cavalry in the distance, until they had gone well down the valley.

They were unnoticed, or at any rate, unchallenged by the party at the chateau, and, issuing from the valley, rode out into the open country.
Far out in the plain they saw several Russians moving about, and judged that these were occupied in searching those who had fallen in the cavalry fight of the preceding day.