Contents
| [THE VICOMTE DE BRAGELONNE.] |
| [Volume I.] |
| [CHAPTER 1. The Letter.] |
| [CHAPTER 2. The Messenger.] |
| [CHAPTER 3. The Interview.] |
| [CHAPTER 4. Father and Son.] |
| [CHAPTER 5. In which Something will be said of Cropoli—of Cropoli and of a Great Unknown Painter.] |
| [CHAPTER 6. The Unknown.] |
| [CHAPTER 7. Parry.] |
| [CHAPTER 8. What his Majesty King Louis XIV. was at the Age of Twenty-Two] |
| [CHAPTER 9. In which the Unknown of the Hostelry of Les Medici loses his Incognito.] |
| [CHAPTER 10. The Arithmetic of M. de Mazarin] |
| [CHAPTER 11. Mazarin’s Policy] |
| [CHAPTER 12. The King and the Lieutenant] |
| [CHAPTER 13. Mary de Mancini] |
| [CHAPTER 14. In which the King and the Lieutenant each give Proofs of Memory] |
| [CHAPTER 15. The Proscribed] |
| [CHAPTER 16. “Remember!”] |
| [CHAPTER 17. In which Aramis is sought and only Bazin is found] |
| [CHAPTER 18. In which D’Artagnan seeks Porthos, and only finds Mousqueton] |
| [CHAPTER 19. What D’Artagnan went to Paris for] |
| [CHAPTER 20. Of the Society which was formed in the Rue des Lombards, at the Sign of the Pilon d’Or] |
| [CHAPTER 21. In which D’Artagnan prepares to travel for the Firm of Planchet and Company] |
| [CHAPTER 22. D’Artagnan travels for the House of Planchet and Company] |
| [CHAPTER 23. In which the Author, very unwillingly, is forced to write a Little History] |
| [CHAPTER 24. The Treasure] |
| [CHAPTER 25. The March] |
| [CHAPTER 26. Heart and Mind] |
| [CHAPTER 27. The Next Day] |
| [CHAPTER 28. Smuggling] |
| [CHAPTER 29. In which D’Artagnan begins to fear he has placed his Money and that of Planchet in the Sinking Fund] |
| [CHAPTER 30. The Shares of Planchet and Company rise again to Par] |
| [CHAPTER 31. Monk reveals himself] |
| [CHAPTER 32. Athos and D’Artagnan meet once more at the Hostelry of the Corne du Cerf] |
| [CHAPTER 33. The Audience.] |
| [CHAPTER 34. Of the Embarrassment of Riches] |
| [CHAPTER 35. On the Canal] |
| [CHAPTER 36. How D’Artagnan drew, as a Fairy would have done, a Country-seat from a Deal Box] |
| [CHAPTER 37. How D’Artagnan regulated the “Assets” of the Company before he established its “Liabilities”] |
| [CHAPTER 38. In which it is seen that the French Grocer had already been established in the Seventeenth Century] |
| [CHAPTER 39. Mazarin’s Gaming Party] |
| [CHAPTER 40. An Affair of State] |
| [CHAPTER 41. The Recital] |
| [CHAPTER 42. In which Mazarin becomes Prodigal] |
| [CHAPTER 43. Guenaud] |
| [CHAPTER 44. Colbert] |
| [CHAPTER 45. Confession of a Man of Wealth] |
| [CHAPTER 46. The Donation] |
| [CHAPTER 47. How Anne of Austria gave one Piece of Advice to Louis XIV., and how M. Fouquet gave him another.] |
| [CHAPTER 48. Agony] |
| [CHAPTER 49. The First Appearance of Colbert] |
| [CHAPTER 50. The First Day of the Royalty of Louis XIV] |
| [CHAPTER 51. A Passion] |
| [CHAPTER 52. D’Artagnan’s Lesson] |
| [CHAPTER 53. The King] |
| [CHAPTER 54. The Houses of M. Fouquet] |
| [CHAPTER 55. The Abbe Fouquet] |
| [CHAPTER 56. M. de la Fontaine’s Wine] |
| [CHAPTER 57. The Gallery of Saint-Mande] |
| [CHAPTER 58. Epicureans] |
| [CHAPTER 59. A Quarter of an Hour’s Delay] |
| [CHAPTER 60. Plan of Battle] |
| [CHAPTER 61. The Cabaret of the Image-de-Notre-Dame] |
| [CHAPTER 62. Vive Colbert!] |
| [CHAPTER 63. How M. d’Eymeris’s Diamond passed into the Hands of M. D’Artagnan.] |
| [CHAPTER 64. Of the Notable Difference D’Artagnan finds between Monsieur the Intendant and Monsieur the Superintendent] |
| [CHAPTER 65. Philosophy of the Heart and Mind] |
| [CHAPTER 66. The Journey] |
| [CHAPTER 67. How D’Artagnan became acquainted with a Poet, who had turned Printer for the sake of printing his own Verses] |
| [CHAPTER 68. D’Artagnan continues his Investigations] |
| [CHAPTER 69. In which the Reader, no doubt, will be as astonished as D’Artagnan was to meet an Old Acquaintance] |
| [CHAPTER 70. Wherein the Ideas of D’Artagnan, at first strangely clouded, begin to clear up a little.] |
| [CHAPTER 71. A Procession at Vannes] |
| [CHAPTER 72. The Grandeur of the Bishop of Vannes] |
| [CHAPTER 73. In which Porthos begins to be sorry for having come with D’Artagnan] |
| [CHAPTER 74. In which D’Artagnan makes all Speed, Porthos snores, and Aramis counsels] |
| [CHAPTER 75. In which Monsieur Fouquet acts] |
| [CHAPTER 76. In which D’Artagnan finishes by at length placing his Hand upon his Captain’s Commission] |
| [CHAPTER 77. A Lover and his Mistress] |
| [CHAPTER 78. In which we at length see the true Heroine of this History appear] |
| [CHAPTER 79. Malicorne and Manicamp] |
| [CHAPTER 80. Manicamp and Malicorne] |
| [CHAPTER 81. The Courtyard of the Hotel Grammont] |
| [CHAPTER 82. The Portrait of Madame] |
| [CHAPTER 83. Havre] |
| [CHAPTER 84. At Sea] |
| [CHAPTER 85. The Tents] |
| [CHAPTER 86. Night] |
| [CHAPTER 87. From Havre to Paris] |
| [CHAPTER 88. An Account of what the Chevalier de Lorraine thought of Madame] |
| [CHAPTER 89. A Surprise for Madame de Montalais] |
| [CHAPTER 90. The Consent of Athos] |
| [CHAPTER 91. Monsieur becomes jealous of the Duke of Buckingham] |
| [CHAPTER 92. Forever!] |
| [CHAPTER 93. King Louis XIV. does not think Mademoiselle de la Valliere either rich enough or pretty enough] |
| [CHAPTER 94. Sword-thrusts in the Water] |
| [CHAPTER 95. Sword-thrusts in the Water (concluded)] |
| [CHAPTER 96. Baisemeaux de Montlezun] |
| [CHAPTER 97. The King’s Card-table] |
| [CHAPTER 98. M. Baisemeaux de Montlezun’s Accounts] |
| [CHAPTER 99. The Breakfast at Monsieur de Baisemeaux’s] |
| [CHAPTER 100. The Second Floor of la Bertaudiere] |
| [CHAPTER 101. The Two Friends] |
| [CHAPTER 102. Madame de Belliere’s Plate] |
| [CHAPTER 103. The Dowry] |
| [CHAPTER 104. Le Terrain de Dieu] |
THE VICOMTE DE BRAGELONNE.
Volume I.
CHAPTER 1.
The Letter.
Towards the middle of the month of May, in the year 1660, at nine o’clock in the morning, when the sun, already high in the heavens, was fast absorbing the dew from the ramparts of the castle of Blois a little cavalcade, composed of three men and two pages, re-entered the city by the bridge, without producing any other effect upon the passengers of the quay beyond a first movement of the hand to the head, as a salute, and a second movement of the tongue to express, in the purest French then spoken in France: “There is Monsieur returning from hunting.” And that was all.
Whilst, however, the horses were climbing the steep acclivity which leads from the river to the castle, several shop-boys approached the last horse, from whose saddle-bow a number of birds were suspended by the beak.
On seeing this, the inquisitive youths manifested with rustic freedom their contempt for such paltry sport, and, after a dissertation among themselves upon the disadvantages of hawking, they returned to their occupations; one only of the curious party, a stout, stubby, cheerful lad, having demanded how it was that Monsieur, who, from his great revenues, had it in his power to amuse himself so much better, could be satisfied with such mean diversions.
“Do you not know,” one of the standers-by replied, “that Monsieur’s principal amusement is to weary himself?”