Mounting, they kept along by the parapet, stooping so that their figures should not show against the sky for, dark as it was below, they might have been noticed had they not done so.

Presently they saw the sentry.
"Diable, messieurs!" he said in a low tone, as they came up to him, "you gave me a start.

I was expecting you, but I did not hear your footsteps nor see you and, had you been enemies, you might very well have seized and disarmed me before I could give the alarm.
"Well, here are your clothes." They soon pulled the blue canvas leggings over their breeches, and over these the high boots, in which their feet felt lost.

A rough blouse and a fisherman's oilskin cap completed the disguise.

They put their boots into the capacious pockets in the blouses, and were then ready to descend.