nowadays. Whoever
hesitates for a second perhaps allows the bait to escape which during
that exact second fortune held out to him. You are young. You ought to
be brave for two reasons: the first is that you are a Gascon, and the
second is that you are my son. Never fear quarrels, but seek adventures.
I have taught you how to handle a sword; you have thews of iron, a
wrist of steel. Fight on all occasions. Fight the more for duels
being forbidden, since consequently there is twice as much courage in
fighting. I have nothing to give you, my son, but fifteen crowns, my
horse, and the counsels you have just heard. Your mother will add to
them a recipe for a certain balsam, which she had from a Bohemian and
which has the miraculous virtue of curing all wounds that do not reach
the heart. Take advantage of all, and live happily and long. I have but
one word to add, and that is to propose an example to you--not mine,
for I myself have never appeared at court, and have only taken part in
religious wars as a volunteer; I speak of Monsieur de Treville, who
was formerly my neighbor, and who had the honor to be, as a child, the
play-fellow of our king, Louis XIII, whom God preserve! Sometimes their
play degenerated into battles, and in these battles the king was not
always the stronger. The blows which he received increased greatly his
esteem and friendship for Monsieur de Treville. Afterward, Monsieur de
Treville fought with others: in his first journey to Paris, five times;
from the death of the late king till the young one came of age, without
reckoning wars and sieges, seven times; and from that date up to the
present day, a hundred times, perhaps! So that in spite of edicts,
ordinances, and decrees, there he is, captain of the Musketeers; that
is to say, chief of a legion of Caesars, whom the king holds in great
esteem and whom the cardinal dreads--he who dreads nothing, as it is
said. Still further, Monsieur de Treville gains ten thousand crowns a
year; he is therefore a great noble. He began as you begin. Go to him
with this letter, and make him your model in order that you may do as he
has done."

Upon which M. d'Artagnan the elder girded his own sword round his son,
kissed him tenderly on both cheeks, and gave him his benediction.

On leaving the paternal chamber, the young man found his mother, who
was waiting for him with the famous recipe of which the counsels we have
just repeated would necessitate frequent employmen