the advantage
over him, and in two or three circumstances, particularly that of the
diamond studs, had, thanks to the devotedness of the three Musketeers
and the courage and conduct of d'Artagnan, cruelly mystified him.

It was, then, Richelieu's object, not only to get rid of an enemy of
France, but to avenge himself on a rival; but this vengeance must be
grand and striking and worthy in every way of a man who held in his
hand, as his weapon for combat, the forces of a kingdom.

Richelieu knew that in combating England he combated Buckingham; that in
triumphing over England he triumphed over Buckingham--in short, that in
humiliating England in the eyes of Europe he humiliated Buckingham in
the eyes of the queen.

On his side Buckingham, in pretending to maintain the honor of England,
was moved by interests exactly like those of the cardinal. Buckingham
also was pursuing a private vengeance. Buckingham could not under any
pretense be admitted into France as an ambassador; he wished to enter it
as a conqueror.

It resulted from this that the real stake in this game, which two most
powerful kingdoms played for the good pleasure of two amorous men, was
simply a kind look from Anne of Austria.

The first advantage had been gained by Buckingham. Arriving unexpectedly
in sight of the Isle of Re with ninety vessels and nearly twenty
thousand men, he had surprised the Comte de Toiras, who commanded for
the king in the Isle, and he had, after a bloody conflict, effected his
landing.

Allow us to observe in passing that in this fight perished the Baron de
Chantal; that the Baron de Chantal left a little orphan girl eighteen
months old, and that this little girl was afterward Mme. de Sevigne.

The Comte de Toiras retired into the citadel St. Martin with his
garrison, and threw a hundred men into a little fort called the fort of
La Pree.

This event had hastened the resolutions of the cardinal; and till the
king and he could take the command of the siege of La Rochelle, which
was determined, he had sent Monsieur to direct the first operations,
and had ordered all the troops he could dispose of to march toward the
theater of war. It was of this detachment, sent as a vanguard, that our
friend d'Artagnan formed a part.

The king, as we have said, was to follow as soon as his Bed of
Justice had been held; but on rising from his Bed of Justice on the
twenty-eighth of June, he felt himself attacked by fever. He was,
notwiths