Adventure and adventurers -- Fiction; France -- History -- Louis XIII, 1610-1643 -- Fiction; Historical fiction; Swordsmen -- Fiction
Porthos, as we have seen, had a character exactly opposite to that of
Athos. He not only talked much, but he talked loudly, little caring, we
must render him that justice, whether anybody listened to him or not.
He talked for the pleasure of talking and for the pleasure of hearing
himself talk. He spoke upon all subjects except the sciences, alleging
in this respect the inveterate hatred he had borne to scholars from his
childhood. He had not so noble an air as Athos, and the commencement of
their intimacy often rendered him unjust toward that gentleman, whom he
endeavored to eclipse by his splendid dress. But with his simple
Musketeer’s uniform and nothing but the manner in which he threw back
his head and advanced his foot, Athos instantly took the place which
was his due and consigned the ostentatious Porthos to the second rank.
Porthos consoled himself by filling the antechamber of M. de Tréville
and the guardroom of the Louvre with the accounts of his love scrapes,
after having passed from professional ladies to military ladies, from
the lawyer’s dame to the baroness, there was question of nothing less
with Porthos than a foreign princess, who was enormously fond of him.
An old proverb says, “Like master, like man.” Let us pass, then, from
the valet of Athos to the valet of Porthos, from Grimaud to Mousqueton.
Mousqueton was a Norman, whose pacific name of Boniface his master had
changed into the infinitely more sonorous name of Mousqueton. He had
entered the service of Porthos upon condition that he should only be
clothed and lodged, though in a handsome manner; but he claimed two
hours a day to himself, consecrated to an employment which would
provide for his other wants. Porthos agreed to the bargain; the thing
suited him wonderfully well. He had doublets cut out of his old clothes
and cast-off cloaks for Mousqueton, and thanks to a very intelligent
tailor, who made his clothes look as good as new by turning them, and
whose wife was suspected of wishing to make Porthos descend from his
aristocratic habits, Mousqueton made a very good figure when attending
on his master.
As for Aramis, of whom we believe we have sufficiently explained the
character—a character which, like that of his companions, we shall be
able to follow in its development—his lackey was called Bazin. Thanks
to the hopes which his master entertained of someday entering into
orders, he was always clothed in black, as became the servant of a
churchman. He was a Berrichon, thirty-five or forty years old, mild,
peaceable, sleek, employing the leisure his master left him in the
perusal of pious works, providing rigorously for two a dinner of few
dishes, but excellent. For the rest, he was dumb, blind, and deaf, and
of unimpeachable fidelity.
And now that we are acquainted, superficially at least, with the
masters and the valets, let us pass on to the dwellings occupied by
each of them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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