upon record, that they were oblivious of its latter portion.
Fighting hard and drinking hard, living hard and dying hard, the
bravest men and most desperate debauchees of all countries, have worn
the uniform of guardsmen.

Our old friend, M. Alexandre Dumas, who, if we may believe one of his
biographers, passes twelve hours a-day in driving a goosequill for the
entertainment and particular edification of his countrymen, found
himself, one fine morning, desperately at a loss for something to
write about. He is, perhaps, not the first writer of fiction who has
been in a like predicament; and even if he were, it would be neither
wonderful nor unpardonable, seeing that his average rate of production
is about three volumes per month. There is a limit to all things, even
to the imagination of a French romance writer; and M. Dumas, without
exception the most prolific of modern scribblers, was for once hard up
for a subject.

_L'hopital n'est pas pour les chiens_, says the French proverb. It
occurred to M. Dumas, that the league or two of books in the
Bibliotheque Royale were not placed there for the mere purpose of
astonishing provincials, or causing English tourists to stare and lift
up their hands in admiration; but that one of the objects of their
preservation might well be, that they should afford suggestions to any
distinguished _litterateur_ who happened to be, like himself, in want
of an idea. Emerging, therefore, from his comfortable abode in the
Chaussee d'Antin, he turned his steps in the direction of the royal
library, and was soon up to his ears in dusty tomes and jaundiced
parchments. After much research, he discovered a folio manuscript,
numbered, as he tells us in his preface, 4772 or 4773, and purporting
to be a memoir, by a certain Count de la Fere, of events that occurred
in France towards the latter part of the reign of Louis the
Thirteenth. Upon perusal, he found this MS. so interesting, that he
applied for, and obtained permission to publish it; and the memoir in
question saw the light under the title of _Les Trois Mousquetaires_.

The piquant and interesting matter contained in this book, caused it
to be much read, and numerous persons were curious to see the original
manuscript. To their infinite surprise, however, they could obtain no
account whatever of such a document; and what was still more
provoking, the librarians seemed to look upon them as insane when they
asked for it. There was much runnin