VOLUME I
PRINTED ONLY FOR SUBSCRIBERS BY
GEORGE BARRIE & SON
PHILADELPHIA
CONTENTS
CHAPTER [I]
CHAPTER [II]
CHAPTER [III]
CHAPTER [IV]
CHAPTER [V]
CHAPTER [VI]
CHAPTER [VII]
CHAPTER [VIII]
CHAPTER [IX]
CHAPTER [X]
CHAPTER [XI]
CHAPTER [XII]
CHAPTER [XIII]
CHAPTER [XIV]
CHAPTER [XV]
CHAPTER [XVI]
CHAPTER [XVII]
CHAPTER [XVIII]
CHAPTER [XIX]
CHAPTER [XX]
CHAPTER [XXI]
CHAPTER [XXII]
CHAPTER [XXIII]
CHAPTER [XXIV]
CHAPTER [XXV]
CHAPTER [XXVI]
CHAPTER [XXVII]
CHAPTER [XXVIII]
CHAPTER [XXIX]
CHAPTER [XXX]
CHAPTER [XXXI]
CHAPTER [XXXII]
CHAPTER [XXXIII]
CHAPTER [XXXIV]
CHAPTER [XXXV]
CHAPTER [XXXVI]
CHAPTER [XXXVII]
CHAPTER [XXXVIII]
CHAPTER [XXXIX]
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
LES BEAUX MESSIEURS DE BOIS-DORÉ
VOLUME I
[MARIO COMFORTS MADAME DE BEUVRE]
[MERCEDES ENCOUNTERS D'ALVIMAR]
[BOIS-DORÉ AND JOVELIN, HIS PROTÉGÉ]
[MERCEDES AND MARIO ENTERTAIN THE MARQUIS]
[MARIO ESTABLISHES HIS IDENTITY]
[THE DUEL BETWEEN THE MARQUIS AND D'ALVIMAR]
LES BEAUX MESSIEURS DE BOIS-DORÉ
[I]
Among the numerous protégés of the favorite Concini, one of the least remarked, yet one of the most remarkable by reason of his wit, education, and the distinction of his manners, was Don Antonio d'Alvimar, a Spaniard of Italian origin, who styled himself Sciarra d'Alvimar. He was a very pretty cavalier, whose face denoted a man of no more than twenty years, although at that time he confessed to thirty. Rather short than tall, muscular without seeming to be so, skilful in all manly exercises, he was certain to interest the ladies by the gleam of his bright and penetrating eyes and by the charm of his conversation, which was as light and agreeable with the fair sex as it was solid and substantial with serious-minded men. He spoke the principal languages of Europe almost without accent, and was no less versed in the ancient languages.
Despite all these appearances of merit, Sciarra d'Alvimar formed no scheme for his own advancement amid the constant intriguing at the court of the Regent; at all events, any that he may have dreamed of came to nothing. He confessed afterward, in the strictest privacy, that he had aspired to make himself agreeable to no less a personage than Marie de Médicis herself, and to replace his own master and patron, Maréchal d'Ancre, in that queen's good graces.