The Man in the Iron Mask

e Jean Per

atherine, who ended by being pleased at the preservation of a Huguenot people, on whom she had long looked with detestation. But Percerin was a very prudent man; and having heard it said that there was no more dangerous sign for a Protestant than to be smiled up on by Catherine, and having observed that her smiles were more frequent than usual, he speedily turned Catholic with all his family; and having thus become irreproachable, attained the lofty position of master tailor to the Crown of France. Under Henry III., gay king as he was, this position was a grand as the height of one of the loftiest peaks of the Cordilleras. Now Percerin had been a clever man all his life, and by way of keeping up his reputation beyond the grave, took very good care not to make a bad death of it, and so contrived to die very skillfully; and that at the very moment he felt his powers of invention declining. He left a son and a daughter, both worthy of the

had attained the summit of his glory when his father died. This same Percerin III., old, famous and wealthy, yet further dressed Louis XIV.; and having no son, which was a great cause of sorrow to him, seeing that with himself his dynasty would end, he had brought up several hopeful pupils. He possessed a carriage, a country house, men-servants the tallest in Paris; and by special authority from Louis XIV., a pack of hounds. He worked for MM. de Lyonne and Letellier, under a sort of patronage; but politic man as he was, and versed in state secrets, he never succeeded in fitting M. Colbert. This is beyond explanation; it is a matter for guessing or for intuition. Great geniuses of every kind live on unseen, intangible ideas; they act without themselves knowing why. The great Percerin (for, contrary to the rule of dynasties, it was, above all, the last of the Percerins who deserved the name of Great), the great Percerin was inspired

Percerin declined to fit bourgeois, or those who had but recently obtained patents of nobility. A story used to circulate that even M. de Mazarin, i

is friend, "Take care, my good D'Artagnan, not to compromise the dignity of a man such as I am with the arrogance of this Percerin, who

an, "you have nothing to fear, even

tis be

nything against P

sent Mouston to a f

d t

refused to

it will be now exceedingly easy to set

rha

onfused t

cal Mouston never c

e it all up

y go

iage, Porthos;

s; and you told me the house was at

rue, bu

o look, an

ha

at we are at

horses to clamber up on the roo

N

front of it. Nor that the second should be driven over the ro

What a number of people! A

e. They are wait

of the Hotel de Bourgogne

btain an entrance to

e going to

ourselves prompte

e we to

keys, and enter the tailor's house, which I

, then," sa

gnan, pushing on Porthos, who scattered the groups of people right and left, succeeded in gaining the counter, behind which the journeyman tailors were doing their best to answer queries. (We forgot to mention that at the door they wanted to put off Porthos like the rest, but D'Artagnan, showing himself, pronounced merely these words, "The king's order," and was let in with his friend.) The poor fellows had enough to do, and did their best, to reply to the demands of the customers in the absence of their master, leaving off drawing a stitch to knit a sentence; and when wounded pride, or disappointed expectation, brought down upon them too cutting a rebuke, he who was attacked made a dive and disappeared under the counter. The line of discontented lords formed a truly remarkable picture. Our captain of musketeers, a man of sure and rapid observation, took it all in at a glance; and having run over the groups, his eye rested on a man in front of him. This man, seated upon a stool, scarcely

man, "and so you have become a

ied the man, softly, "you w

and wha

, there is n

here is no good in doing

ccupied in examining s

understand the interest you take in the

nk y

that you tell me where

y; in his own

one can't

proac

every

at I might be at my ease to make my

Moliere, but you will go

which you snatch the bone it has legitimately gained; "I distu

ear Moliere," said D'Artagnan, in a low tone, "I warn you of one th

y an imperceptible gesture,

es

hearts of men. The subject doubtless appeared a very promising one, for he