midnight
`` If you please , '' replied Aramis joyously . `` Forward , my friend Porthos ; our boat awaits us , and the king has not caught us yet . '' The cavern of Locmaria was sufficiently distant from the mole to render it necessary for our friends to husband their strength to arrive there . Besides , night was advancing ; midnight had struck at the fort . Porthos and Aramis were loaded with money and arms . They walked then , across the heath , which is between the mole and the cavern , listening to every noise , and endeavoring to avoid ambushes . From time to time , on the road , which they had carefully left on their left hand , passed fugitives coming from the interior , at the news of the landing of the royal troops .