Hellespont.

"Bring me those towels I purchased from the wandering Persian. I
regret that I did not have them blessed by his Holiness. For who knows
what spell the heretic Saracen may have cast over them?"

"Monsieur knows," said Breton piously, "that I have had them sprinkled
with the blessed water."

The Chevalier laughed. He was rather a godless youth, and whatever
religion he possessed was merely observance of forms. "Donkey, if the
devil himself had offered them for sale, I should have taken them, for
they pleased me; and besides, they have created a fashion. I shall
wear my new baldric--the red one. I report at the Palais Royal at
eight, and I've an empty stomach to attend to. Be lively, lad. Duty,
duty, always duty," snatching the towels. "I have been in the saddle
since morning; I am still dead with stiffness; yet duty calls. Bah! I
had rather be fighting the Spaniard with Turenne than idle away at the
Louvre. Never any fighting save in pothouses; nothing but ride, ride,
ride, here, there, everywhere, bearing despatches not worth the paper
written on, but worth a man's head if he lose them. And what about?
Is this person ill? Condolences. Is this person a father?
Congratulations. Monsieur, the king's uncle, is ailing; I romp to
Blois. A cabal is being formed in Brussels; I gallop away. His
Eminence hears of a new rouge; off I go. And here I have been to Rome
and back with a message which made the pope laugh; is it true that he
is about to appoint a successor? Mazarin, tiring of being a
left-handed king, aspires to the mantle of Saint Peter. Mazarin always
selects me for petty service. Why? Oh, Monsieur le Chevalier, having
an income, need not be paid moneys; because Monsieur le Chevalier was