文档介绍：The Three Musketeers Alexandre Dumas AUTHOR'S PREFACE In which it is proved that, notwithstandi ng their names' ending in OS and IS, the heroes of the story which we are about to have the honor to relate to our readers have nothing mythological about them. A short time ago, while making researches in the Royal Library for my History of Louis XIV, I stumbled by chance upon the Memoirs of M. d' Artagnan, printed--as were most of the works of that period, in which authors could not tell the truth without the risk of a residence, more or less long, in the Bastille--at Amsterdam, by Pierre Rouge. The title attracted me; I took them home with me, with the permission of the guardian, and devoured them. It is not my i ntention here to enter into an analysis of this curious work; and I shall satisfy myself with referri ng such of my readers as appreciate the pictures of the period to its pages. They will therein fi nd portraits penciled by the hand of a master; and although these squibs may be, for the most part, traced upon the doors of barracks and the walls of cabarets, they will not fi nd the likenesses of Louis XIII, Anne of Austria, Richelieu, Mazari n, and the courtiers of the period, less faithful than in the history of M. Anquetil. But, it is well known, what strikes the capricious mi nd of the poet is not always what affects the mass of readers. Now, while admiri ng, as others doubtless will admire, the details we have to relate, our main upation concerned a matter to which no one before ourselves had given a thought. D'Artagnan relates that on his first visit to M. de Treville, captain of the king's Musketeers, 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 thr