Part 10 (1/2)
”Ah!” said Porthos, with a sigh, ”'tis vexatious, but ould you havedoes”
”What! do they , too? does he put up with it?”
”The king is a beau, ood friend, and so are you, too, whatever you may say about it”
Porthos s's tailor,” he said; ”and since he , I think, by my faith, I may do worse than allow him to measure _me!_”
Chapter III Who Messire Jean Percerin Was
The king's tailor, Messire Jean Percerin, occupied a rather large house in the Rue St Honore, near the Rue de l'Arbre Sec He was a ant stuffs, e The preferment of his house reached as far back as the tin dated, as we know, fancy in _bravery_ difficult enough to gratify The Percerin of that period was a Huguenot, like Ambrose Pare, and had been spared by the Queen of Navarre, the beautiful Margot, as they used to write and say, too, in those days; because, in sooth, he was the only one who could -habits which she so loved to wear, seeing that they were marvelously well suited to hide certain anatomical defects, which the Queen of Navarre used very studiously to conceal
Percerin being saved, ratitude, some beautiful black bodices, very inexpensively indeed, for Queen Catherine, who ended by being pleased at the preservation of a Huguenot people, on who looked with detestation But Percerin was a very prudent erous sign for a Protestant than to be s observed that her smiles were more frequent than usual, he speedily turned Catholic with all his fa thus become irreproachable, attained the lofty position of master tailor to the Crown of France
Under Henry III, gay king as he was, this position was a grand as the height of one of the loftiest peaks of the Cordilleras Now Percerin had been a cleverup his reputation beyond the grave, took very good care not to make a bad death of it, and so contrived to die very skillfully; and that at the veryHe left a son and a daughter, both worthy of the name they were called upon to bear; the son, a cutter as unerring and exact as the square rule; the daughter, apt at ee of Henry IV and Marie de Medici, and the exquisite court-ether with a feords let fall by M de Basso of the _beaux_ of the period, eneration of Percerins M Concino Concini, and his wife Galligai, who subsequently shone at the French court, sought to Italianize the fashi+on, and introduced some Florentine tailors; but Percerin, touched to the quick in his patriotisners, and that so well that Concino was the first to give up his compatriots, and held the French tailor in such esteem that he would never employ any other, and thus wore a doublet of his on the very day that Vitry blew out his brains with a pistol at the Pont du Louvre
And so it was a doublet issuing from M Percerin's workshop, which the Parisians rejoiced in hacking into sohu the favor Concino Concini had shown Percerin, the king, Louis XIII, had the generosity to bear no malice to his tailor, and to retain him in his service At the tireat exaht up two sons, one of whoe of Anne of Austria, invented that admirable Spanish costume, in which Richelieu danced a saraband, edy of ”Miraham's mantle those famous pearls which were destined to be scattered about the pavements of the Louvre A man becomes easily notable who has ham, a M de Cinq-Mars, a Mademoiselle Ninon, a M de Beaufort, and a Marion de Lorme And thus Percerin the third had attained the sulory when his father died This same Percerin III, old, fa no son, which was a great cause of sorrow to hi that with hiht up several hopeful pupils He possessed a carriage, a country house, men-servants the tallest in Paris; and by special authority from Louis XIV, a pack of hounds He worked for MM de Lyonne and Letellier, under a sort of patronage; but politic man as he was, and versed in state secrets, he never succeeded in fitting M Colbert This is beyond explanation; it is a eniuses of every kind live on unseen, intangible ideas; they act without thereat Percerin (for, contrary to the rule of dynasties, it was, above all, the last of the Percerins who deserved the nareat Percerin was inspired when he cut a robe for the queen, or a coat for the king; he couldfor Madame; but, in spite of his supre a creditable fit for M Colbert ”That man,” he used often to say, ”is beyond my art; my needle can never dot him down” We need scarcely say that Percerin was M Fouquet's tailor, and that the superintendent highly esteehty 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 arer 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 renown, instead of running after custo 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 grand lla Porthos; who, as they were going along, said to his friend, ”Take care, nity of a ance of this Percerin, ill, I expect, be very iive you notice,in respect I will infallibly chastise hinan, ”you have nothing to fear, even though you hat 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 , no doubt, which it will be now exceedingly easy to set right Mouston must have made a mistake”
”Perhaps”
”He has confused the names”
”Possibly That rascal Mouston never can remember naood”
”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 l'Arbre Sec”
”'Tis true, but look”