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 duels are forbidden, and consequently it requires twice as much courage to challenge an opponent. I have but fifteen crowns to give you, my son, besides the horse and the advice which you now hear. Your mother will add to them the recipe for a certain salve, which she procured from a Bohemian woman, and which has the miraculous power of curing every wound which does not touch the heart. Take advantage of such magnificent opportunities, and live long and happily. I have only one word more to add, and it is an example which I offer you; not my own, for I have never been at court I have only served in the religious wars as a volunteer I wish to speak to you of M. de Treville, who was formerly my neighbor, and who has had the honor of playing whilst a boy, with our king, Louis XIII., whom God preserve. Sometimes their sports turned to battles, and in these battles the king had not always the best of it yet the cuffs he received from M. de Treville imbued him with a great deal of esteem and friendship from him. Afterward, M. de Treville, during his first journey to Paris, fought five times with other persons; from the death of the late monarch to the majority of the young king, he has fought seven times, without reckoning campaigns and sieges; and since that day to the present perhaps a hundred times! And yet, in spite of edicts ordinances, and arrests, behold him now captain of the Life Guards; that is, chief of a legion of fire-eaters upon whom the king mainly depends, and who are feared by the cardinal, who, as every one knows, is not afraid of a trifle. Moreover, M. de Treville gains ten thousand crowns a year, and therefore is a man of consequence. He began the world as you do. Go to him with this letter, and let your conduct be regulated by him, and may you meet with the same success.”

Hereupon M. d’Artagnan, the father, buckled his own sword round his son’s waist, tenderly kissed him on each cheek, and gave him his blessing. Leaving the paternal chamber, the young man found his mother waiting with the famous recipe; and, from the advice he had just