Pressed by these considerations, I could think of no better man to begin with than Fresnoy.
His character was bad, and he had long forfeited such claim as he had ever possessed--I believe it was a misty one, on the distaff side--to gentility.

But the same cause which had rendered me destitute I mean the death of the prince of Conde--had stripped him to the last rag; and this, perhaps, inclining me to serve him, I was the more quick to see his merits.

I knew him already for a hardy, reckless man, very capable of striking a shrewd blow.

I gave him credit for being trusty, as long as his duty jumped with his interest.
Accordingly, as soon as it was light, having fed and groomed the Cid, which was always the first employment of my day, I set out in search of Fresnoy, and was presently lucky enough to find him taking his morning draught outside the 'Three Pigeons,' a little inn not far from the north gate.

It was more than a fortnight since I had set eyes on him, and the lapse of time had worked so great a change for the worse in him that, forgetting my own shabbiness, I looked at him askance, as doubting the wisdom of enlisting one who bore so plainly the marks of poverty and dissipation.