to marry, or inclination for the church, has stuck to the service with
credit, but with small profit to himself; and the lieutenancy bestowed
upon him by the Cardinal-Duke in 1628, is still a lieutenancy in 1648,
under Richelieu's less able, but equally ambitious successor, Cardinal
Mazarine. Moreover, deprived, during the greater part of these twenty
years, of the society of his three fiends, who had in some measure
formed his character, and from the example of two of whom he had
caught much of what chivalry and elegance he possessed--deprived also
of opportunities of displaying those peculiar talents for bold
intrigue, which had once enabled him to thwart the projects of
Richelieu himself, D'Artagnan has degenerated into a mere trooper. His
talents and shrewdness have not deserted him; on the contrary, the
latter has increased with his experience of the world; but instead of
being employed in the service of queens and princes, their exercise
has been for some years confined to procuring their owner those
physical and positive comforts which soldiers seek and prize--namely,
a good table, comfortable quarters, and a complaisant hostess.

Although thus making the best of his position, and only occasionally
grumbling at the caprice of Dame Fortune, who seems entirely to have
forgotten him, it is with a lively sensation of joy that D'Artagnan,
one evening when on guard at the Palais Royal, hears himself summoned
to the presence of Mazarine. It is at the commencement of the Fronde;
the exactions of the cardinal have irritated the people, who show
symptoms of open resistance; his enemies, already sufficiently
numerous, are daily increasing and becoming more formidable. Mazarine
trembles for his power, and looks around him for men of head and
action, to aid him in breasting the storm and carrying out his
schemes. He hears tell of the four guardsmen, whose fidelity and
devotion had once saved the reputation of Anne of Austria, and baffled
the most powerful minister France ever saw; these four men he resolves
to make his own, and D'Artagnan is dispatched to find his three former
companions, and induce them to espouse the cause of the cardinal. The
mission is but partially successful. D'Artagnan finds Porthos, whose
real name is Du Vallon, rich, flourishing, and a widower, but,
notwithstanding all these advantages, perfectly unhappy because he has
no title. Vanity was always the failing of Porthos. Aramis, otherwise
the Chevali