Read "The Cardinal's Musketeer" by Mary Imlay Taylor online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
WHEN the boy was twelve years old, a great change came into his life. The Prince de Condé, coming into the shop one day, saw him, noticed his strength and beauty, and offered to receive him into his household to be trained to the profession of arms. This opportunity was joyfully embraced by Jacques des Horloges, who had long been in despair of placing the child as he desired. Père Antoine had trained him well in reading, and he was a fair scribe, but he had had no one to teach him to wield a weapon or ride a horse, and the clockmaker desired to see him a soldier rather than a priest.
Condé's offer was therefore the subject of many debates in the room behind the shop; Jacques Michel being eager to send him into the household of a prince of the blood, and Père Antoine and Madame Michel half inclined to put obstacles in the way, mainly because they could not endure the thought of parting with the boy. But the opportunity was too brilliant to be lost, and in the end the clockmaker prevailed.