"May I ask," the potion-maker said after reading the letter, raising an unexpected question, "what is the meaning of the name in the signature?"
"Because Athenais is not a proper name for a duke's daughter," the King said. "But the Duke still allowed her to retain her former name as a middle name. Françoise was the name of the Duke's mother, and the Rochechouart family is the main branch of the Mortemart family."
"Have you met the Duke of Mortemart? What sort of man is he?"
"I have not, but my envoy has," Louis said to Bontemps. "Have Count D'Artagnan come to me."
The reason the King had sent D'Artagnan to handle this matter was entirely because the gentleman was bold enough, with a rakish air about him. He dressed fashionably and extravagantly, possessed a handsome, refined face and an elegant bearing. A man like that would surely get along with the Duke of Mortemart, who had been determined to marry a witch at all costs and, to win her favor, had even been willing to acknowledge three girls with no blood relation to him whatsoever. Events had indeed unfolded as the King expected. D'Artagnan, who had at least four or five lovers who had emptied their husbands' coffers for him, had become the Duke's honored guest without the slightest effort. Though the Duke still had some reservations, D'Artagnan had met the new Duchess as well, and could not help but be conquered by her beauty and that air of fragility that stirred one's pity.
When he had first arrived in Bordeaux, D'Artagnan had still suspected that the Duke had been bewitched by the witch's magic. Once he met the Duchess, though, he instead began to wonder whether the Duke had somehow worked his own tricks. Especially after the Duke's