faction or genuine
regret from the success or defeat of their own combatants. We learn this
from the memoirs of a man who was concerned in some few of these defeats
and in many of these victories.

Treville had grasped the weak side of his master; and it was to this
address that he owed the long and constant favor of a king who has
not left the reputation behind him of being very faithful in his
friendships. He paraded his Musketeers before the Cardinal Armand
Duplessis with an insolent air which made the gray moustache of his
Eminence curl with ire. Treville understood admirably the war method of
that period, in which he who could not live at the expense of the enemy
must live at the expense of his compatriots. His soldiers formed a
legion of devil-may-care fellows, perfectly undisciplined toward all but
himself.

Loose, half-drunk, imposing, the king's Musketeers, or rather M. de
Treville's, spread themselves about in the cabarets, in the public
walks, and the public sports, shouting, twisting their mustaches,
clanking their swords, and taking great pleasure in annoying the Guards
of the cardinal whenever they could fall in with them; then drawing
in the open streets, as if it were the best of all possible sports;
sometimes killed, but sure in that case to be both wept and avenged;
often killing others, but then certain of not rotting in prison, M. de
Treville being there to claim them. Thus M. de Treville was praised to
the highest note by these men, who adored him, and who, ruffians as they
were, trembled before him like scholars before their master, obedient
to his least word, and ready to sacrifice themselves to wash out the
smallest insult.

M. de Treville employed this powerful weapon for the king, in the first
place, and the friends of the king--and then for himself and his own
friends. For the rest, in the memoirs of this period, which has left so
many memoirs, one does not find this worthy gentleman blamed even by his
enemies; and he had many such among men of the pen as well as among
men of the sword. In no instance, let us say, was this worthy gentleman
accused of deriving personal advantage from the cooperation of his
minions. Endowed with a rare genius for intrigue which rendered him
the equal of the ablest intriguers, he remained an honest man. Still
further, in spite of sword thrusts which weaken, and painful exercises
which fatigue, he had become one of the most gallant frequenters of
revels, one o