thed like manufacturers, have a good cutlass or a good
musket at their saddle-bow, and a good pistol in the holster. They never
allow themselves to be uneasy, because they have no evil designs. They
are, perhaps, in truth, a little disposed to be smugglers, but what
harm is in that? Smuggling is not, like polygamy, a hanging offense. The
worst that can happen to us is the confiscation of our merchandise. Our
merchandise confiscated--fine affair that! Come, come! it is a superb
plan. Ten men only--ten men, whom I will engage for my service; ten men
who shall be as resolute as forty, who would cost me four times as much,
and to whom, for greater security, I will never open my mouth as to my
designs, and to whom I shall only say, 'My friends, there is a blow
to be struck.' Things being after this fashion, Satan will be very
malicious if he plays me one of his tricks. Fifteen thousand livres
saved--that's superb--out of twenty!"

Thus fortified by his laborious calculations, D'Artagnan stopped at this
plan, and determined to change nothing in it. He had already on a list
furnished by his inexhaustible memory, ten men illustrious amongst the
seekers of adventures, ill-treated by fortune, and not on good terms
with justice. Upon this D'Artagnan rose, and instantly set off on the
search, telling Planchet not to expect him to breakfast, and perhaps not
to dinner. A day and a half spent in rummaging amongst certain dens of
Paris sufficed for his recruiting; and, without allowing his adventurers
to communicate with each other, he had picked up and got together, in
less than thirty hours, a charming collection of ill-looking faces,
speaking a French less pure than the English they were about to attempt.
These men were, for the most part, guards, whose merit D'Artagnan
had had an opportunity of appreciating in various encounters, whom
drunkenness, unlucky sword-thrusts, unexpected winnings at play, or the
economical reforms of Mazarin, had forced to seek shade and solitude,
those two great consolers of irritated and chafing spirits. They
bore upon their countenances and in their vestments the traces of the
heartaches they had undergone. Some had their visages scarred,--all
had their clothes in rags. D'Artagnan comforted the most needy of
these brotherly miseries by a prudent distribution of the crowns of the
society; then, having taken care that these crowns should be employed in
the physical improvement of the troop, he appointed a