of the Musketeers 48.  A family affair 49.  Fatality 50.  Chat between brother and sister 51.  Officer 52.  Captivity:  The first day 53.  Captivity:  The second day 54.  Captivity:  The third day 55.  Captivity:  The fourth day 56.  Captivity:  The fifth day 57.  Means for classical tragedy 58.  Escape 59.  What took place at Portsmouth 60.  In France 61.  The Carmelite convent at Bethune 62.  Two varieties of demons 63.  The drop of water 64.  The man in the red cloak 65.  Trial 66.  Execution 67.  Conclusion

EPILOGUE

The Three Musketeers Alexandre Dumas

AUTHOR’S PREFACE

In which it is proved that, notwithstanding their names’ ending in OS and is, the heroes of the story which we are about to have the honor to relate to our readers have nothing mythological about them.

A short time ago, while making researches in the Royal Library for my History of Louis XIV, I stumbled by chance upon the Memoirs of M. d’Artagnan, printed—­as were most of the works of that period, in which authors could not tell the truth without the risk of a residence, more or less long, in the Bastille—­at Amsterdam, by Pierre Rouge.  The title attracted me; I took them home with me, with the permission of the guardian, and devoured them.

It is not my intention here to enter into an analysis of this curious work; and I shall satisfy myself with referring such of my readers as appreciate the pictures of the period to its pages.  They will therein find portraits penciled by the hand of a master; and although these squibs may be, for the most part, traced upon the doors of barracks and the walls of cabarets, they will not find the likenesses of Louis XIII, Anne of Austria, Richelieu, Mazarin, and the courtiers of the period, less faithful than in the history of M. Anquetil.

But, it is well known, what strikes the capricious mind of the poet is not always what affects the mass of readers.  Now, while admiring, as others doubtless will admire, the details we have to relate, our main preoccupation concerned a matter to which no one before ourselves had given a thought.

D’Artagnan relates that on his first visit to M. de Treville, captain of the king’s Musketeers, he met in the antechamber three young men, serving in the illustrious corps into which he was soliciting the honor of being received, bearing the names of Athos, Porthos, and Aramis.