Chapter III. Who Messire Jean Percerin Was.

by Alexandre Dumas

　　The king's tailor, Messire Jean Percerin, occupied a rather large housein the Rue St. Honore, near the Rue de l'Arbre Sec. He was a man ofgreat taste in elegant stuffs, embroideries, and velvets, beinghereditary tailor to the king. The preferment of his house reached asfar back as the time of Charles IX.; from whose reign dated, as we know,fancy in bravery difficult enough to gratify. The Percerin of thatperiod was a Huguenot, like Ambrose Pare, and had been spared by theQueen 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 makefor her those wonderful riding-habits which she so loved to wear, seeingthat they were marvelously well suited to hide certain anatomicaldefects, which the Queen of Navarre used very studiously to conceal.Percerin being saved, made, out of gratitude, some beautiful blackbodices, very inexpensively indeed, for Queen Catherine, who ended bybeing pleased at the preservation of a Huguenot people, on whom she hadlong looked with detestation. But Percerin was a very prudent man; andhaving heard it said that there was no more dangerous sign for aProtestant than to be smiled up on by Catherine, and having observed thather smiles were more frequent than usual, he speedily turned Catholicwith all his family; and having thus become irreproachable, attained thelofty position of master tailor to the Crown of France. Under HenryIII., gay king as he was, this position was a grand as the height of oneof the loftiest peaks of the Cordilleras. Now Percerin had been a cleverman all his life, and by way of keeping up his reputation beyond thegrave, took very good care not to make a bad death of it, and socontrived to die very skillfully; and that at the very moment he felt hispowers of invention declining. He left a son and a daughter, both worthyof the name they were called upon to bear; the son, a cutter as unerringand exact as the square rule; the daughter, apt at embroidery, and atdesigning ornaments. The marriage of Henry IV. and Marie de Medici, andthe exquisite court-mourning for the afore-mentioned queen, together witha few words let fall by M. de Bassompiere, king of the beaux of theperiod, made the fortune of the second generation of Percerins. M.Concino Concini, and his wife Galligai, who subsequently shone at theFrench court, sought to Italianize the fashion, and introduced someFlorentine tailors; but Percerin, touched to the quick in his patriotismand his self-esteem, entirely defeated these foreigners, and that so wellthat Concino was the first to give up his compatriots, and held theFrench tailor in such esteem that he would never employ any other, andthus wore a doublet of his on the very day that Vitry blew out his brainswith a pistol at the Pont du Louvre.And so it was a doublet issuing from M. Percerin's workshop, which theParisians rejoiced in hacking into so many pieces with the living humanbody it contained. Notwithstanding the favor Concino Concini had shownPercerin, the king, Louis XIII., had the generosity to bear no malice tohis tailor, and to retain him in his service. At the time that Louis theJust afforded this great example of equity, Percerin had brought up twosons, one of whom made his debut at the marriage of Anne of Austria,invented that admirable Spanish costume, in which Richelieu danced asaraband, made the costumes for the tragedy of "Mirame," and stitched onto Buckingham's mantle those famous pearls which were destined to bescattered about the pavements of the Louvre. A man becomes easilynotable who has made the dresses of a Duke of Buckingham, a M. de Cinq-Mars, a Mademoiselle Ninon, a M. de Beaufort, and a Marion de Lorme. Andthus Percerin the third had attained the summit of his glory when hisfather died. This same Percerin III., old, famous and wealthy, yetfurther dressed Louis XIV.; and having no son, which was a great cause ofsorrow to him, seeing that with himself his dynasty would end, he hadbrought up several hopeful pupils. He possessed a carriage, a countryhouse, men-servants the tallest in Paris; and by special authority fromLouis 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 statesecrets, he never succeeded in fitting M. Colbert. This is beyondexplanation; it is a matter for guessing or for intuition. Greatgeniuses of every kind live on unseen, intangible ideas; they act withoutthemselves knowing why. The great Percerin (for, contrary to the rule ofdynasties, it was, above all, the last of the Percerins who deserved thename of Great), the great Percerin was inspired when he cut a robe forthe 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 off anything approaching a creditable fit for M.Colbert. "That man," he used often to say, "is beyond my art; my needlecan never dot him down." We need scarcely say that Percerin was M.Fouquet's tailor, and that the superintendent highly esteemed him. M.Percerin was nearly eighty years old, nevertheless still fresh, and atthe same time so dry, the courtiers used to say, that he was positivelybrittle. 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; andfor those least eager to pay never to dare to leave their accounts inarrear with him; for Master Percerin would for the first time makeclothes upon credit, but the second never, unless paid for the formerorder.It is easy to see at once that a tailor of such renown, instead ofrunning after customers, made difficulties about obliging any freshones. And so Percerin declined to fit bourgeois, or those who had butrecently obtained patents of nobility. A story used to circulate thateven M. de Mazarin, in exchange for Percerin supplying him with a fullsuit of ceremonial vestments as cardinal, one fine day slipped letters ofnobility into his pocket.It was to the house of this grand llama of tailors that D'Artagnan tookthe despairing Porthos; who, as they were going along, said to hisfriend, "Take care, my good D'Artagnan, not to compromise the dignity ofa man such as I am with the arrogance of this Percerin, who will, Iexpect, be very impertinent; for I give you notice, my friend, that if heis wanting in respect I will infallibly chastise him.""Presented by me," replied D'Artagnan, "you have nothing to fear, eventhough 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 it will be now exceedingly easyto 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 atthe corner 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 horses to clamber up on the roof of thecarriage in front of us?""No.""Nor the carriage in front of us to mount on top of the one in front ofit. Nor that the second should be driven over the roofs of the thirty orforty others which have arrived before us.""No, you are right, indeed. What a number of people! And what are theyall about?""'Tis very simple. They are waiting their turn.""Bah! Have the comedians of the Hotel de Bourgogne shifted theirquarters?""No; their turn to obtain an entrance to M. Percerin's house.""And we are going to wait too?""Oh, we shall show ourselves prompter and not so proud.""What are we to do, then?""Get down, pass through the footmen and lackeys, and enter the tailor'shouse, which I will answer for our doing, if you go first.""Come along, then," said Porthos.They accordingly alighted and made their way on foot towards theestablishment. The cause of the confusion was that M. Percerin's doorswere closed, while a servant, standing before them, was explaining tothe 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 whomhe favored, in confidence, that M. Percerin was engaged on five costumesfor the king, and that, owing to the urgency of the case, he wasmeditating in his office on the ornaments, colors, and cut of these fivesuits. Some, contented with this reason, went away again, contented torepeat the tale to others, but others, more tenacious, insisted on havingthe doors opened, and among these last three Blue Ribbons, intended totake parts in a ballet, which would inevitably fail unless the said threehad their costumes shaped by the very hand of the great Percerinhimself. D'Artagnan, pushing on Porthos, who scattered the groups ofpeople right and left, succeeded in gaining the counter, behind whichthe journeyman tailors were doing their best to answer queries. (Weforgot to mention that at the door they wanted to put off Porthos likethe rest, but D'Artagnan, showing himself, pronounced merely these words,"The king's order," and was let in with his friend.) The poor fellowshad enough to do, and did their best, to reply to the demands of thecustomers in the absence of their master, leaving off drawing a stitch toknit a sentence; and when wounded pride, or disappointed expectation,brought down upon them too cutting a rebuke, he who was attacked made adive and disappeared under the counter. The line of discontented lordsformed a truly remarkable picture. Our captain of musketeers, a man ofsure and rapid observation, took it all in at a glance; and having runover the groups, his eye rested on a man in front of him. This man,seated upon a stool, scarcely showed his head above the counter thatsheltered him. He was about forty years of age, with a melancholyaspect, pale face, and soft luminous eyes. He was looking at D'Artagnanand the rest, with his chin resting upon his hand, like a calm andinquiring amateur. Only on perceiving, and doubtless recognizing, ourcaptain, he pulled his hat down over his eyes. It was this action,perhaps, that attracted D'Artagnan's attention. If so, the gentlemanwho had pulled down his hat produced an effect entirely different fromwhat he had desired. In other respects his costume was plain, and hishair evenly cut enough for customers, who were not close observers, totake him for a mere tailor's apprentice, perched behind the board, andcarefully stitching cloth or velvet. Nevertheless, this man held up hishead too often to be very productively employed with his fingers.D'Artagnan was not deceived, - not he; and he saw at once that if thisman was working at anything, it certainly was not at velvet."Eh!" said he, addressing this man, "and so you have become a tailor'sboy, Monsieur Moliere!""Hush, M. d'Artagnan!" replied the man, softly, "you will make themrecognize me.""Well, and what harm?""The fact 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 occupied in examining some excellent figures.""Go on - go on, Monsieur Moliere. I quite understand the interest youtake in the plates - I will not disturb your studies.""Thank you.""But on one condition; that you tell me where M. Percerin really is.""Oh! willingly; in his own room. Only - ""Only that one can't enter it?""Unapproachable.""For everybody?""Everybody. He brought me here so that I might be at my ease to make myobservations, and then he went away.""Well, my dear Monsieur Moliere, but you will go and tell him I am here.""I!" exclaimed Moliere, in the tone of a courageous dog, from which yousnatch the bone it has legitimately gained; "I disturb 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 dearMoliere," said D'Artagnan, in a low tone, "I warn you of one thing: thatI won't exhibit to you the friend I have brought with me."Moliere indicated Porthos by an imperceptible gesture, "This gentleman,is it not?""Yes."Moliere fixed upon Porthos one of those looks which penetrate the mindsand hearts of men. The subject doubtless appeared a very promising one,for he immediately rose and led the way into the adjoining chamber.