Loose, half-drunk, imposing, the king's Musketeers, or rather M.

The captain of the Musketeers was therefore admired, feared, and loved; and this constitutes the zenith of human fortune.

From fifty to sixty Musketeers, who appeared to replace one another in order always to present an imposing number, paraded constantly, armed to the teeth and ready for anything.

There were four Musketeers on the bottom steps, amusing themselves with the following exercise, while ten or twelve of their comrades waited upon the landing place to take their turn in the sport.

That great man who was so revered by D'Artagnan the elder served as an object of ridicule to the Musketeers of Treville, who cracked their jokes upon his bandy legs and his crooked back.

"Give me a uniform of one of these musketeers and help me to put it on."

"The uniform of the king's musketeers carries a certain respect with it, and even if that were not the case I would engage with four of my men to put to flight a hundred of these clowns."

"Monsieur de Comminges is in the guards and not in the musketeers "

"Which means, I suppose, that the musketeers are better soldiers than the guards." The cardinal smiled as he spoke.

Seeing, however, no one there except a musketeer of his own troop, he fixed his eyes upon the supposed soldier, in whose dress, nevertheless, he recognized at the first glance the cardinal.

ah!" murmured the musketeer, aside; "that is, I am boring you, my friend." Then aloud, "Well, then, let us leave; I have no further business here, and if you are as disengaged as I, Aramis - "

I am going," said D'Artagnan, imparting to his voice an evident tone of curiosity; for Aramis's annoyance, well dissembled as it was, had not a whit escaped him; and he knew that, in that impenetrable mind, every thing, even the most apparently trivial, was designed to some end; an unknown one, but an end that, from the knowledge he had of his friend's character, the musketeer felt must be important.

"Let us see," said the attentive musketeer; perceiving with his wonderful instinct that they had only been skirmishing till now, and that the hour of battle was approaching.

yes, yes," said the musketeer, nearly convinced, so plausible was this reasoning.

"What in the world, now, is the meaning of this imbroglio?" the musketeer kept saying to himself.