The Three Musketeers (Translated by Richard Pevear) - Alexandre Dumas [17]
II
M. DE TRÉVILLE’S ANTECHAMBER
M. de Troisvilles, as his family was still known in Gascony, or M. de Tréville, as he had ended by calling himself in Paris, had really begun like d’Artagnan, that is, without a penny to his name, but with that wealth of audacity, wit, and understanding which makes it so that the poorest Gascon squireling often receives more from his hopes of a paternal inheritance than the richest gentleman of Périgord or Berry receives in reality. His dauntless bravery, his still more dauntless luck, in a time when the blows poured down like hail, had raised him to the top of that difficult ladder known as court favor, which he had taken four rungs at a time.
He was the friend of the king, who, as everyone knows, greatly honored the memory of his father, Henri IV. M. de Tréville’s father had served him so loyally in his wars against the League11 that, for lack of ready cash—something the Béarnais lacked all his life, constantly paying his debts with the one thing he never needed to borrow, that is, with wit—for lack of ready cash, as we have said, he had authorized him, after the surrender of Paris, to take for his coat of arms a golden lion passant upon gules with the motto: Fidelis et fortis.* That did much for his honor, but little for his prosperity. And so, when the great Henri’s illustrious companion died, the only inheritance he left his son was his sword and his motto. Thanks to this double gift, and to the spotless name that accompanied it, M. de Tréville was admitted to the house of the young prince, where he served so well with his sword and was so loyal to his motto that Louis XIII, one of the best blades in the realm, got into the habit of saying, if he had a friend who was fighting a duel, that as seconds he would advise him to take himself first and then Tréville, and perhaps even the other way round.
And so Louis XIII had a real affection for Tréville—a royal affection, an egoistic affection, true, but an affection nonetheless. The fact is that, in those unfortunate times, one tried hard to surround oneself with men of Tréville’s temper. Many could take as their motto the epithet “strong,” which was the second part of his epigraph, but few gentlemen could lay claim to the epithet “faithful,” which formed the first part. Tréville was one of the latter; he was one of those rare organizations, of an obedient intelligence like that of a mastiff, of blind valor, of quick eye, of prompt hand, who had been given eyes only in order to see if the king was displeased with someone, a Besme, a Maurevers, a Poltrot de Méré, a Vitry.12 Finally, all Tréville had lacked till then was the occasion; but he watched out for it, and firmly promised himself to seize it by its three hairs if it ever came within reach of his hand. And so Louis XIII made Tréville captain of his musketeers, who in their devotion, or rather fanaticism, were for Louis XIII what his regulars were for Henri III and what his Scots Guard was for Louis XI.
On his side, and in this respect, the cardinal was not to be outdone by the king. When he saw the formidable élite Louis XIII had surrounded himself with, this second, or, rather, this first king of France wanted to have a guard of his own. Thus he had his musketeers as Louis XIII had his, and these two rival powers were seen in all the provinces of France, and even in all foreign states, selecting men for their service who were famous for great strokes of the sword. And so Richelieu and Louis XIII often argued, during their evening game of chess, over the merits of their servants. Each boasted of the bearing and courage of his own, and while pronouncing themselves aloud against duels and brawling, they quietly encouraged them to go at it, and felt genuine sorrow or immoderate joy at the defeat or victory of their men. So, at least, it is said in the memoirs of a man who took part in some of those defeats and many of those victories.
Tréville had grasped his master’s weak side, and it was to that cleverness that he owed the long and constant favor of a king who