Treville had grasped the weak side of his master; and it was to this address that he owed the long and stant 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 i air whibsp;made the gray moustabsp;of his Eminenbsp;curl with ire. Treville uood admirably the war method of that period, in whibsp;he who could not live at the expen of the enemy must live at the expen of his patriots. His soldiers formed a legion of devil-may-care fellows, perfectly undisciplined toward all but himlf.
Loo, half-drunk, imposing, the king''s Musketeers, or rather M. de Treville''s, spread themlves about in the cabarets, in the publibsp;walks, and the publibsp;sports, shouting, twisting their mustaches, king 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 bsp;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 praid to the highest note by the 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 sacrifibsp;themlves to wash out the smallest insult.
M de Treville employed this powerful on for the king, in the first plabsp;and the friends of the king--and then for himlf and his own friends. For the rest, in the memoirs of this period, whibsp;has left so many memoirs, one does not find this worthy gentleman blamed even by his enemies; and he had many subsp;among men of the pen as well as among men of the sword. In no instanbsp;let us say, was this worthy gentleman acbsp;of deriving personal advantage from the cooperation of his minions. Endowed with a rare genius for intrigue whibsp;rendered him the equal of the ablest intriguers, he remained an ho man. Still further, in spite of sword thrusts whibsp;weaken, and painful exerbsp;whibsp;fatigue, he had bee one of the most gallant frequenters of revels, one of the most insinuating lady''s men, one of the softest whisperers of iing nothings of his day; the BONNES FORTUNES of de Treville were talked of as tho of M. de Bassompierre had been talked of twenty years before, and that was not saying a little. The captain of the Musketeers was therefore admired, feared, and loved; and this stitutes the zenith of human fortune.