In which the Unknown of the Hostelry
of Les Medici loses his Incognito.



This officer, who was sleeping, or preparing to sleep, was,
notwithstanding his careless air, charged with a serious
responsibility.

Lieutenant of the king's musketeers, he commanded all the
company which came from Paris, and that company consisted of
a hundred and twenty men; but, with the exception of the
twenty of whom we have spoken, the other hundred were
engaged in guarding the queen-mother, and more particularly
the cardinal.

Monsignor Giulio Mazarini economized the traveling expenses
of his guards; he consequently used the king's, and that
largely, since he took fifty of them for himself -- a
peculiarity which would not have failed to strike any one
unacquainted with the usages of that court.

That which would still further have appeared, if not
inconvenient, at least extraordinary, to a stranger, was,
that the side of the castle destined for monsieur le
cardinal was brilliant, light and cheerful. The musketeers
there mounted guard before every door, and allowed no one to
enter, except the couriers, who, even while he was
traveling, followed the cardinal for the carrying on of his