But this was not the worst.
My dress, which suffered inevitably from this menial employment, began in no long time to bear witness to the change in my circumstances; so that on the day of the King of Navarre's entrance into St.Jean I dared not face the crowd, always quick to remark the poverty of those above them, but was fain to keep within doors and wear out my patience in the garret of the cutler's house in the Rue de la Coutellerie, which was all the lodging I could now afford.
Pardieu, 'tis a strange world! Strange that time seems to me; more strange compared with this.

My reflections on that day, I remember, were of the most melancholy.

Look at it how I would, I could not but see that my life's spring was over.

The crows' feet were gathering about my eyes, and my moustachios, which seemed with each day of ill-fortune to stand out more fiercely in proportion as my face grew leaner, were already grey.

I was out at elbows, with empty pockets, and a sword which peered through the sheath.