<DIV><DIV><I>The Three Musketeers,</I> first published in 1844, is an abiding classic. It has been translated into many languages, repeatedly filmed, and its heroes?D'Artagnan, Porthos, Aramis, and Athos?have become literary archetypes. Yet, outside France, few people are aware that all four are based on historical figures, members of the elite Black Musketeer regiment during the 1640s. <I>The Four Musketeers</I> gives an account of the historical background of the real four musketeers, who came to Paris in the 1640s and thus witnessed some of the most dramatic moments of 17th-century France: the last years of Louis XIII and the struggle for control over him between the scandalous royal favorite, Cinq-Mars and the dying Cardinal Richelieu; and the rise to power of Cardinal Mazarin.</DIV></DIV>