It is not my intention here to enter into an analysis of this curiouswork; and I shall satisfy myself with referring such of my readers asappreciate the pictures of the period to its pages. They will thereinfind portraits penciled by the hand of a master; and although thesesquibs may be, for the most part, traced upon the doors of barracks andthe walls of cabarets, they will not find the likenesses of Louis XIII, Anne of Austria, Richelieu, Mazarin, and the courtiers of the period, less faithful than in the history of M. Anquetil.But, it is well known, what strikes the capricious mind of the poet isnot always what affects the mass of readers. Now, while admiring, asothers doubtless will admire, the details we have to relate, our mainpreoccupation concerned a matter to which no one before ourselves hadgiven a thought.D'Artagnan relates that on his first visit to M. de Treville, captainof the king's Musketeers, he met in the antechamber three young men, serving in the illustrious corps into which he was soliciting the honorof being received, bearing the names of Athos, Porthos, and Aramis.We must confess these three strange names struck us; and it immediatelyoccurred to us that they were but pseudonyms, under which d'Artagnan haddisguised names perhaps illustrious, or else that the bearers of theseborrowed names had themselves chosen them on the day in which, fromcaprice, discontent, or want of fortune, they had donned the simpleMusketeer's uniform.From the moment we had no rest till we could find some trace incontemporary works of these extraordinary names which had so stronglyawakened our curiosity.The catalogue alone of the books we read with this object would filla whole chapter, which, although it might be very instructive, wouldcertainly afford our readers but little amusement. It will suffice, then, to tell them that at the moment at which, discouraged by so manyfruitless investigations, we were about to abandon our search, we atlength found, guided by the counsels of our illustrious friend PaulinParis, a manuscript in folio, endorsed 4772 or 4773, we do not recollectwhich, having for title, "Memoirs of the Comte de la Fere, Touching SomeEvents Which Passed in France Toward the End of the Reign of King LouisXIII and the Commencement of the Reign of King Louis XIV."It may be easily imagined how great was our joy when, in turning overthis manuscript, our last hope, we found at the twentieth page thename of Athos, at the twenty-seventh the name of Porthos, and at thethirty-first the name of Aramis.The discovery of a completely unknown manuscript at a period in whichhistorical science is carried to such a high degree appeared almostmiraculous. We hastened, therefore, to obtain permission to print it, with the view of presenting ourselves someday with the pack of othersat the doors of the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, ifwe should not succeed--a very probable thing, by the by--in gainingadmission to the Academie Francaise with our own proper pack. Thispermission, we feel bound to say, was graciously granted; which compelsus here to give a public contradiction to the slanderers who pretendthat we live under a government but moderately indulgent to men ofletters.Now, this is the first part of this precious manuscript which we offerto our readers, restoring it to the title which belongs to it, andentering into an engagement that if (of which we have no doubt) thisfirst part should obtain the success it merits, we will publish thesecond immediately.In the meanwhile, as the godfather is a second father, we beg the readerto lay to our account, and not to that of the Comte de la Fere, thepleasure or the ENNUI he may experience.This being understood, let us proceed with our history.