D'Artagnan, the King Maker — page 45: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

CHAPTER IV. THE ATLAS, The end of the seventeenth century was distinguished by its quibblers, anagram-makers who played upon words ; there was also much playing upon swords; and, some- times, the two arts were combined in the same individual, as witness M. d’Artagnan, who had converted into Gan- narta his family name. But unless the reader, who would have divined this without hint, has an acquaintance with the reigns of the thirteenth and fourteenth Louis, he will not have the same perception of this gentleman’s character, employment and aims as that which these pages are intended to furnish. - Louis, Knight of Artagnan, in that Gascony whose lively and boastful people have given the term of “gasconades”’ to extravagant stories, was, as he boasted, a black, or thorough old Gascon. His father, who inherited knightly spurs, had flashed his sword in the wars of religion, often charging side by side with his prince, Henry, then King of Navarre, another “little cradle of great men.” He retired, broken-spirited, on the assassination of that lamented and popular monarch. With that sword, and paternal recommendation to such brothers-in-arms of his © as had thriven at the court of “‘the Green Gallant’s” son, Louis XIII., young D’Artagnan had journeyed to Paris to commence, at the early age of eighteen, that career of ofhicer of fortune, common to penniless springalds. Distinguished at the outset in the street brawls, only notable because the laws forbade them, while the princes ‘who wanted practised swordsmen encouraged them, the young man earned a reputation for premature coolness, superior handling of the sword, and prudence not often found in the southron. King and cardinal were ever at odds ; only, as the king had a younger brother, pet of their mother, who cherished inimical designs against him, he had to lean, at times, on his sole friend—the Cardinal Duke of Richelieu, Armand Duplessis. | Gomicbooks.Go