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The Three Musketeers
Twenty Years Later
The Vicomte De Bragelonne
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The Vicomte De Bragelonne 599 at Prostate Health
of Great),
the great Percerin was inspired when he cut a robe for the queen, or a
coat for the king; he could mount a mantle for Monsieur, the clock of a
stocking for Madame; but, in spite of his supreme talent, he could never
hit the measure of M. Colbert. "That man," he used often to say, "is
beyond my art; my needle never can hit him off." We need scarcely say,
that Percerin was M. Fouquets tailor, and that the surintendant highly
esteemed him. M. Percerin was nearly eighty years old, nevertheless,
still fresh, and at the same time so dry, the courtiers used to say,
that he was positively brittle. His renown and his fortune were great
enough for M. le Prince, that king of fops, to take his arm when talking
over the fashions; and for those least eager to pay never to dare to
leave their accounts in arrear with him; for Master Percerin would for
the first time make clothes upon credit, but the second never, unless
paid for the former order.
It is easy to see at once that a tailor of such standing, instead of
running after customers, made difficulties about obliging any fresh
ones. And so Percerin declined to fit bourgeois, or those who had but
recently obtained patents of nobility. A story used to circulate that
even M. de Mazarin, in exchange for Percerin supplying him with a full
suit of ceremonial vestments as cardinal, one fine day slipped letters
of nobility into his pocket.
It was to the house of this great lord of tailors that DArtagnan took
the despairing Porthos; who, as they were going along, said to his
friend, "Take care, my good DArtagnan, not to compromise the dignity of
a man such as I am with the arrogance of this Percerin, who will, I
expect, be very impertinent; for I give you notice, my friend, that if
he is wanting in respect to me, I will chastise him."
"Presented by me," replied DArtagnan, "you have nothing to fear, even
though you were what you are not."
"Ah! tis because--"
"What? Have you anything against Percerin, Porthos?"
"I think that I once sent Mouston to a fellow of that name."
"And then?"
"The fellow refused to supply me."
"Oh, a misunderstanding, no doubt, which tis pressing to set right.
Mouston must have made a mistake."
"Perhaps."
"He has confused the names."
"Possibly. That rascal Mouston never can remember names."
"I will take it all upon myself."
"Very good."
"Stop the carriage, Porthos; here we are."
"Here! how here? We are at the Halles; and you told me the house was at
the corner of the Rue de lArbre Sec."
"Tis true--but look."
"Well, I do look, and I see--"
"What?"
"Pardieu! that we are at the Halles!"
"You do not, I suppose, want our horses to clamber up on the top of the
carriage in front of us?"
"No."
"Nor the carriage in front of us to mount on the one in front of it. Nor
that the second should be driven over the roofs of the thirty or forty
others which have arrived before us?"
"No, you are right, indeed. What a number of people! And what are they
all about?"
"Tis very simple--they are waiting their turn."
"Bah! Have the comedians of the Hotel de Bourgogne shifted their
quarters?"
"No; their turn to obtain an entrance to M. Percerins house."
"And we are going to wait too?"
"Oh, we shall show ourselves more ready and less proud than they."
"What are we to do, then?"
"Get down, pass through the footmen and lackeys, and enter the tailors
house, which I will answer for our doing, if you go first."
"Come, then," said Porthos.
They both alighted and made their way on foot toward the establishment.
The cause of the confusion was, that M. Percerins doors were closed,
while a servant, standing before them, was explaining to the illustrious
customers of the illustrious tailor that just then M. Percerin could not
receive anybody. It was bruited about outside still, on the authority of
what the great lackey had told some great noble whom he favored, in
confidence, that M. Percerin was engaged upon five dresses for the king,
and that, owing to the urgency of the case, he was meditating in his
office on the ornaments, colors, and cut of these five suits. Some,
contented with this reason, went away again, happy to repeat it to
others; but others, more tenacious, insisted on having the doors
opened, and among these last three Blue Ribbons, intended to take parts
in a ballet, which would inevitably fail
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