LETTER: From the Earl of Montrose to Captain Dugald Dalgetty.
Whoever has read the "Memoirs of Monsieur d'Artagnan"--a Marshal in
the French King's service--as they are published by Monsieur
Alexandre Dumas in "Les Trois Mousquetaires," will not have
forgotten that duel behind the Luxembourg, in which, as is
declared, an Englishman ran away from the Chevalier d'Herblay,
called Aramis in his regiment. Englishmen have never held that
Monsieur Dumas was well informed about this affair. The following
letters of the Great Marquis and Captain Dalgetty from the
"Kirkhope Papers" prove that Englishmen were in the right.
-, 164-.
Sir,--Touching that I did, to your apprehension, turn away from you
with some show of coldness on your late coming, it may be that you
but little misread me. But, for that no man is condemned without a
hearing, I would fain know under your own hand the truth concerning
that whereof a shameful report is bruited abroad, even in the
"Gallo Belgicus" and the "Fliegender Mercoeur" of Leipsic--namely,
that in a certain duel lately fought in Paris behind the Palace of
the Luxembourg, four Englishmen encountering as many Musketeers of
the French King's, one out of this realm, to our disgrace,
shamefully fled; and he (by report) Rittmaster Dugald Dalgetty.
Till which, bruit be either abolished, and the stain--as an ill
blot on a clean scutcheon--wiped away, or as shamefully
acknowledged as it is itself shameful, I abide, as I shall hear
from yourself,
MONTROSE.
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