The Man in the Iron Mask
Who Messire Jean Percerin Was.
The king’s tailor, Messire Jean Percerin, a large house in the Rue St. Honore, near the Rue de l’Arbre Sec. He was a man of great taste in stuffs, embroideries, and velvets, being tailor to the king. The of his house as as the time of Charles IX.; from dated, as we know, in difficult to gratify. The Percerin of that period was a Huguenot, like Ambrose Pare, and had been by the Queen of Navarre, the Margot, as they used to and say, too, in those days; because, in sooth, he was the only one who make for her those riding-habits which she so loved to wear, that they were well to defects, which the Queen of Navarre used very to conceal. Percerin being saved, made, out of gratitude, some black bodices, very indeed, for Queen Catherine, who ended by being pleased at the of a Huguenot people, on she had long looked with detestation. But Percerin was a very man; and having it said that there was no more for a Protestant than to be up on by Catherine, and having that her were more than usual, he Catholic with all his family; and having thus irreproachable, the position of master tailor to the Crown of France. Under Henry III., king as he was, this position was as as the of one of the of the Cordilleras. Now Percerin had been a man all his life, and by way of up his the grave, took very good not to make a death of it, and so to die very skillfully; and that at the very moment he his powers of declining. He left a son and a daughter, of the name they were called upon to bear; the son, a as and exact as the square rule; the daughter, at embroidery, and at ornaments. The marriage of Henry IV. and Marie de Medici, and the court-mourning for the afore-mentioned queen, together with a let by M. de Bassompiere, king of the of the period, the of the second of Percerins. M. Concino Concini, and his wife Galligai, who at the French court, to Italianize the fashion, and some Florentine tailors; but Percerin, touched to the quick in his and his self-esteem, these foreigners, and that so well that Concino was the to give up his compatriots, and the French tailor in such that he would any other, and thus a of his on the very day that Vitry out his with a pistol at the Pont du Louvre.
And so it was a from M. Percerin’s workshop, which the Parisians in into so many pieces with the it contained. Notwithstanding the Concino Concini had Percerin, the king, Louis XIII., had the to no to his tailor, and to him in his service. At the time that Louis the Just this great example of equity, Percerin had up two sons, one of his at the marriage of Anne of Austria, that Spanish costume, in which Richelieu a saraband, the for the of “Mirame,” and on to Buckingham’s those famous pearls which were to be about the of the Louvre. A man easily who has the of a Duke of Buckingham, a M. de Cinq-Mars, a Mademoiselle Ninon, a M. de Beaufort, and a Marion de Lorme. And thus Percerin the third had the of his when his father died. This same Percerin III., old, famous and wealthy, yet Louis XIV.; and having no son, which was a great of to him, that with himself his would end, he had up pupils. He a carriage, a country house, men-servants the in Paris; and by special authority from Louis XIV., a pack of hounds. He for MM. de Lyonne and Letellier, under a of patronage; but man as he was, and in secrets, he succeeded in M. Colbert. This is explanation; it is a for or for intuition. Great of every live on unseen, ideas; they act without themselves why. The great Percerin (for, to the of dynasties, it was, above all, the last of the Percerins who the name of Great), the great Percerin was when he cut a for the queen, or a for the king; he a for Monsieur, the clock of a for Madame; but, in of his talent, he off anything a fit for M. Colbert. “That man,” he used often to say, “is my art; my can him down.” We need say that Percerin was M. Fouquet’s tailor, and that the him. M. Percerin was nearly eighty years old, still fresh, and at the same time so dry, the used to say, that he was positively brittle. His and his were great for M. le Prince, that king of fops, to take his arm when talking over the fashions; and for those least to pay to to their in with him; for Master Percerin would for the time make upon credit, but the second never, unless paid for the order.
It is easy to see at once that a tailor of such renown, of after customers, about any fresh ones. And so Percerin to fit bourgeois, or those who had but of nobility. A used to that M. de Mazarin, in for Percerin him with a full of as cardinal, one day of into his pocket.
It was to the house of this of tailors that D’Artagnan took the Porthos; who, as they were going along, said to his friend, “Take care, my good D’Artagnan, not to the of a man such as I am with the of this Percerin, who will, I expect, be very impertinent; for I give you notice, my friend, that if he is wanting in respect I will him.”
“Presented by me,” D’Artagnan, “you have nothing to fear, 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 of that name.”
“And then?”
“The to supply me.”
“Oh, a misunderstanding, no doubt, which it will be now easy to set right. Mouston must have a mistake.”
“Perhaps.”
“He has the names.”
“Possibly. That Mouston can 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 of the Rue de l’Arbre 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 to up on the of the in of us?”
“No.”
“Nor the in of us to on top of the one in of it. Nor that the second should be over the of the thirty or others which have 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 of the Hotel de Bourgogne their quarters?”
“No; their turn to obtain an entrance to M. Percerin’s house.”
“And we are going to wait too?”
“Oh, we shall ourselves and not so proud.”
“What are we to do, then?”
“Get down, pass through the and lackeys, and enter the tailor’s house, which I will answer for our doing, if you go first.”
“Come along, then,” said Porthos.
They and their way on the establishment. The of the was that M. Percerin’s doors were closed, while a servant, them, was to the of the tailor that just then M. Percerin not anybody. It was about still, on the authority of what the great had told some great he favored, in confidence, that M. Percerin was on five for the king, and that, to the of the case, he was in his office on the ornaments, colors, and cut of these five suits. Some, with this reason, away again, to repeat the to others, but others, more tenacious, on having the doors opened, and among these last three Blue Ribbons, to take parts in a ballet, which would fail unless the said three had their by the very hand of the great Percerin himself. D’Artagnan, pushing on Porthos, who the groups of people right and left, succeeded in the counter, which the tailors were doing their best to answer queries. (We to mention that at the door they wanted to put off Porthos like the rest, but D’Artagnan, himself, these words, “The king’s order,” and was let in with his friend.) The had to do, and did their best, to reply to the of the in the of their master, off a to a sentence; and when pride, or expectation, upon them too a rebuke, he who was a and under the counter. The line of a picture. Our captain of musketeers, a man of sure and observation, took it all in at a glance; and having over the groups, his rested on a man in of him. This man, seated upon a stool, his above the that him. He was about years of age, with a aspect, face, and soft eyes. He was looking at D’Artagnan and the rest, with his upon his hand, like a and amateur. Only on perceiving, and recognizing, our captain, he his over his eyes. It was this action, perhaps, that D’Artagnan’s attention. If so, the who had his produced an different from what he had desired. In other respects his was plain, and his cut for customers, who were not close observers, to take him for a tailor’s apprentice, the board, and cloth or velvet. Nevertheless, this man up his too often to be very with his fingers. D’Artagnan was not deceived,—not he; and he saw at once that if this man was at anything, it was not at velvet.
“Eh!” said he, this man, “and so you have a tailor’s boy, Monsieur Moliere!”
“Hush, M. d’Artagnan!” the man, softly, “you will make them me.”
“Well, and what harm?”
“The is, there is no harm, but—”
“You were going to say there is no good in doing it either, is it not so?”
“Alas! no; for I was in some excellent figures.”
“Go on—go on, Monsieur Moliere. I the you take in the plates—I will not your studies.”
“Thank you.”
“But on one condition; that you tell me where M. Percerin is.”
“Oh! willingly; in his own room. Only—”
“Only that one can’t enter it?”
“Unapproachable.”
“For everybody?”
“Everybody. He me here so that I might be at my to make my observations, and then he away.”
“Well, my dear Monsieur Moliere, but you will go and tell him I am here.”
“I!” Moliere, in the of a dog, from which you the it has gained; “I myself! Ah! Monsieur d’Artagnan, how hard you are upon me!”
“If you don’t go directly and tell M. Percerin that I am here, my dear Moliere,” said D’Artagnan, in a low tone, “I you of one thing: that I won’t to you the friend I have with me.”
Moliere Porthos by an gesture, “This gentleman, is it not?”
“Yes.”
Moliere upon Porthos one of those looks which the minds and of men. The appeared a very promising one, for he rose and the way into the chamber.
