inclined to be
a _dreamer_. He had picked up, here and there, some scraps of M. de
la Rochefoucault, worthy of being translated into Latin by MM. de Port
Royal; and he had made a collection, _en passant_, in the society of
Athos and Aramis, of many morsels of Seneca and Cicero, translated by
them, and applied to the uses of common life. That contempt of riches
which our Gascon had observed as an article of faith during the
thirty-five first years of his life, had for a long time been considered
by him as the first article of the code of bravery. "Article first,"
said he, "A man is brave because he has nothing. A man has nothing
because he despises riches." Therefore, with these principles, which,
as we have said, had regulated the thirty-five first years of his life,
D'Artagnan was no sooner possessed of riches, than he felt it necessary
to ask himself if, in spite of his riches, he were still brave. To this,
for any other but D'Artagnan, the events of the Place de Greve might
have served as a reply. Many consciences would have been satisfied
with them, but D'Artagnan was brave enough to ask himself sincerely and
conscientiously if he were brave. Therefore to this:--

"But it appears to me that I drew promptly enough, and cut and thrust
pretty freely on the Place de Greve, to be satisfied of my bravery,"
D'Artagnan had himself replied. "Gently, captain, that is not an answer.
I was brave that day, because they were burning my house, and there
are a hundred, and even a thousand, to speak against one, that if those
gentlemen of the riots had not formed that unlucky idea, their plan of
attack would have succeeded, or, at least, it would not have been I who
would have opposed myself to it. Now, what will be brought against me? I
have no house to be burnt in Bretagne; I have no treasure there that
can be taken from me.--No; but I have my skin; that precious skin of M.
d'Artagnan, which to him is worth more than all the houses and all the
treasures of the world. That skin to which I cling above everything,
because it is, everything considered, the binding of a body which
encloses a heart very warm and ready to fight, and, consequently, to
live. Then, I do desire to live: and, in reality, I live much better,
more completely, since I have become rich. Who the devil ever said that
money spoiled life? Upon my soul, it is no such thing, on the contrary,
it seems as if I absorbed a double quantity of air and sun. _Mordioux!_
what w