It is not for me to describe him as Bussy and Saint-Evremond have tried to do; his own words shall tell the pleasant story of sieges and battles, and of his not less glorious stratagems in love or at play.

Louis XIII. reigned, and Cardinal Richelieu governed the kingdom.  Great men were in command of little armies, and these little armies won great achievements.  The fortunes of powerful houses depended on the minister’s favour.  His vast projects were establishing the formidable grandeur of the France of to-day.  But matters of police were a trifle neglected; the highways were unsafe, and theft went unpunished.  Youth, entering on life, took what part it chose; everyone might be a knight; everyone who could became a beneficed priest.  The sacred and military callings were not distinguished by their dress, and the Chevalier de Grammont adorned them both at the siege of Trin.

Many deeds of daring marked this siege of Trin; there had been great fatigues and many losses.  But of boredom, after De Grammont’s arrival, there was never any throughout the army; no more weariness in the trenches, no more dulness among the generals.  Everywhere, this man sought and carried joy.

Some vainly imitated him; others more wisely sought his friendship.  Among these was Matta, a fellow of infinite frankness, probity, and naturalness, and of the finest discernment and delicacy.  A friendship was quickly established between the two; they agreed to live together, sharing expenses, and began to give a series of sumptuous and elegant banquets, at which they found the cards marvellously profitable.  The chevalier became the fashion, and it was considered bad form to contravene his taste.

But the greatest prosperity is not always the most lasting.  Lavish expenditure such as theirs begins to be felt when the luck changes, and the chevalier soon had to call his genius to aid him in maintaining his honourable reputation.  Rejecting Matta’s suggestion of retrenchment and reforms as contrary to the honour of France, Grammont laid before him the better way.  He proposed to invite Count de Cameran, a wealthy and eager player, to supper on the following evening.  Matta objected their present straits.

“Have you not a grain of imagination?” continued the chevalier.  “Order a supper of the best.  He will pay.  But listen first to the simple precautions which I mean to take.  You command the Guards, don’t you?  Well, have fifteen or twenty men, under your Sergeant Laplace, lying in some quiet place between here and headquarters.”

“Great heavens!” cried Matta.  “An ambush?  You mean to rob the unhappy man?  I cannot go so far as that!”

“Poor simpleton that you are!” was the reply.  “Look fairly at the facts.  There is every appearance that we shall gain his money.  The Piedmontese, such as he is, are honest enough, but are by nature absurdly suspicious.  He commands the cavalry.  Well, you are a man who cannot rule your tongue, and it is ten to one that some of your jests will make him anxious.  If he were to take into his head that he was being cheated, what might not happen?  He usually has eight or ten mounted men attending him, and we must guard against his natural resentment at losing.”