Cartouche is an emissary of the Cour des Miracles in the Paris of 1648. He is the link between the King of the Beggars and the outside world: he carries messages, opens doors in no-man’s districts, and mediates between the organized misery of the margins and the affairs above. The king’s laws weigh little on him and matter only insofar as he can profit from them.
He is marked by a known mutilation: only three fingers on the hand he extends to close deals. He wears a red cape, strikingly elegant by his usual standard, and keeps neither too near nor too far from whoever summons him.