s into execution; profiting by the
general surprise, he insinuated himself between two guests and provided
himself with the glass of one, the plate of another, and the napkin of a
third. Profound amazement made his neighbors oblivious to the things of
this world. All this was accomplished with so much quickness, dexterity,
confidence and boldness that the guests of the illustrious captain of
the Unicorn and the illustrious captain himself did not dream of more
than looking with the greatest curiosity and astonishment at the
Chevalier de Croustillac. The adventurer proudly wore an old waistcoat
of rateen, once green, but now of a yellowish blue; his frayed breeches
were of the same shade; his stockings, at one time scarlet, were now a
faded pink, and seemed in places to be fairly embroidered with white
thread; a badly worn gray felt hat, an old sword-belt trimmed with
imitation gold lace, now tarnished, supported a long sword upon which
the chevalier, on entering, leaned with the air of a grandee.
Croustillac was a very tall and excessively thin man. He appeared to be
from thirty-six to forty years of age. His hair, mustache, and eyebrows
were jet black, his face bony, brown and tanned. He had a long nose,
small hazel eyes, which were extraordinarily lively, and his mouth was
very large; his physiognomy betrayed at the same time an imperturbable
assurance and an excessive vanity.

Croustillac had that overweening belief in himself which one finds only
among the Gascons. He so exaggerated his merits and natural graces to
himself that he believed no woman was able to resist him; the list of
his conquests of every kind had been interminable. In spite of the most
amazing falsehoods, which cost him little, it cannot be denied that he
possessed true courage and a certain nobility of character. This
natural valor, joined to his blind confidence in himself, sometimes
precipitated him into almost inextricable situations, into which he
threw himself headlong, and from which he never emerged without hard
blows--for if he was as adventurous and boastful as a Gascon, he was as
obstinate and opinionated as a Breton.

Heretofore his life had been very similar to that of his Bohemian
companions. The younger son of a poor Gascon family of doubtful
nobility, he had come to seek his fortune at Paris; by turns petty
officer of a forlorn hope; provost of an academy, bath-keeper, horse
jockey, peddler of satirical news and Holland gazettes;