"Alexandre Dumas. The Three Musketeers." - читать интересную книгу автора

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 is
not always what af-fects the mass of readers. Now, while admiring, as
others doubtless will admire, the details we have to relate, our main
preoccupation concerned a matter to which no one before our-selves had
given a thought.
D'Artagnan relates that on his first visit to M. de Treville, captain
of the king's Musket-eers, he met in the antechamber three young men,
serving in the illustrious corps into which he was soliciting the honor of
being received, bearing the names of Athos, Porthos, and Aramis.
We must confess these three strange names struck us; and it
immediately occurred to us that they were but pseudonyms, under which
D'Artagnan had disguised names perhaps illustrious, or else that the
bearers of these borrowed names had themselves chosen them on the day in
which, from caprice, discontent, or want of fortune, they had donned the
simple Musketeer's uniform.
>From the moment we had no rest till we could find some trace in
contemporary works of these extraordinary names which had so strongly
awakened our curiosity.
The catalogue alone of the books we read with this object would fill a
whole chapter, which, although it might be very instructive, would
certainly afford our readers but little amusement. It will suffice, then,
to tell them that at the moment at which, discouraged by so many fruitless
investigations, we were about to abandon our search, we at length found,
guided by the counsels of our illustrious friend Paulin Paris, a manuscript
in folio, endorsed 4772 or 4773, we do not recollect which, having for
title, "Memoirs of the Comte de la Fere, Touching Some Events Which Passed
in France Toward the End of the Reign of King Louis XIII and the
Commencement of the Reign of King Louis XIV."
It may be easily imagined how great was our joy when, in turning over
this manuscript, our last hope, we found at the twentieth page the name of
Athos, at the twenty-seventh the name of Porthos, and at the thirty-first
the name of Aramis.
The discovery of a completely unknown manuscript at a period in which
historical science is carried to such a high degree appeared almost
miraculous. We hastened, therefore, to obtain permission to print it, with
the view of presenting ourselves someday with the pack of others at the
doors of the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, if we should not
succeed--a very probable thing, by the by--in gaining admission to the
Academie Francaise with our own proper pack. This permission, we feel bound
to say, was graciously granted; which compels us here to give a public
contradiction to the slanderers who pretend that we live under a government
but moderately indulgent to men of letters.
Now, this is the first part of this precious manuscript which we offer
to our readers, re-storing it to the title which belongs to it, and
entering into an engagement that if (of which we have no doubt) this first
part should obtain the success it merits, we will publish the second
immediately.
In the meanwhile, as the godfather is a second father, we beg the