From the Journal of Laurent Gilles, manservant of "Valierre" du Paix of Montaigne.

I will make this as quick as possible as I never really quite know when my lord will decide to send me off on some "mission" or another and I have had little enough sleep as it is... Not that I complain, mind you, it is just that this life is much more "exciting" and my lord much more "excitable" than the sendentary life that I am accustomed to as the servant of the nobility. I am sure that, once my lord is returned to his proper place, we shall both look back at these times we have wandered and name them "interesting" and "amusing".

I kept telling myself that as I wielded a wine bottle against armed Musketeers to allow my master and his friends a timely escape! And I tell myself that now as I pen this journal entry and prepare to catch a few minutes of well-deserved sleep before awakening Lord Valierre for the next leg of his journey. My master is a good and kind man, but there are times when he does not see his good servant's stiff upper lip in the face of exhaustion, taking it for, as he once put it to the Compte du Charlot, "Laurent's heroic levels of constitution" instead of what it is: my sense of duty and over-riding devotion.

Though sometimes duty weighs heavily, I assure the reader (if there ever is one beside myself) that I carry my burden lightly and praise the Prophets everyday that I do not have the travails of the common peasant. Though I risk the label of Treason to state it here, Montaigne has become a difficult place for the common man. Alas that the Emperor (may the Prophets bless his steps!) does not hold the commoners in the same regard as my master. Though Valierre believes, as I do, that the nobility has the right and the skills to rule this (and other) lands, my lord Valierre feels that the lower classes deserve to be treated as a parent would treat his child: with love and respect and a firm hand if that child strays from the path.

Tomorrow, or should I say this morning, we continue our travels by ship. I have booked passage on The Swift Endeavor, a rather fancy name for what is in actuality a simple river barge. The captain has agreed to take us to Manche, the port city on the River Duchain where we are to meet the rest of our little party. The captain's belief that we are both fairly well-to-do servants of an important Charouse Nobleman,the Vicompte Du Alexendre', he has given us a single cabin and excused us from working off part of our fare as is the usual custom for servants and commoners (I am afraid that many ship's captains take advantage of the Church's proverb, "An idle servant's hands will do the work of Legion".). I would like to believe that our journey to Manche will be a short and leisurely one, though recent events have convinced me to keep my hand close to anything that can be used as a weapon in my lord's defense... And I am sure that with my countymen's love of the grape, there will always be an empty bottle laying about that can be used to stave off an angry Musketeer or two...

May the Prophets bless our journey...

With this prayer I close, from the servants quarters of the Vicompte Du Alexandre' on the *th of *****, 1668.