Page:The life and writings of Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) (IA lifewritingsofal00spurrich).pdf/237

 very necessary process of renovation, elaboration, and elevation.

The names—and little else—of the three "brothers-in-war" are to be found in the "Mémoires." Athos, Porthos, and Aramis are but shadows, and the little that we do learn of them there is not exactly to their credit. They are actually brothers; whereas the romancer by making them brothers-in-heart gains enormously in effect.

Roughly speaking, Dumas has expanded, in the first six chapters of the "Mousquetaires," the opening chapters of "D'Artagnan." "The man of Meung," the hero's evil genius, was evidently suggested by an aristocrat named Rosnay, with whom the real D'Artagnan had an encounter early in his career, and who figures throughout as a coward, who endeavours to get D'Artagnan assassinated. In a later part of the "Mémoires" a hint is given that Louis XIII's Chancellor, Séguier, once attempted to take from the Queen a letter concealed upon her person. In "D'Artagnan" the letter was suspected to be from Spain, and political; in Dumas it was thought to be from Buckingham, Anne's secret lover. The most important extract from the "Mémoires" concerns "Miladi," and our author has borrowed freely from the young cadet's amour with the beautiful Englishwoman. The chapters