Three Musketeers (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (105 page)

“We were beginning to grow impatient,” said Athos.

“Here I am, my friends,” replied D’Artagnan; “not only free, but in favor.”

“Tell us about it.”

“This evening; but for the moment, let us separate.”

Accordingly, that same evening D’Artagnan repaired to the quarters of Athos, whom he found in a fair way to empty a bottle of Spanish wine—an occupation which he religiously accomplished every night.

D’Artagnan related what had taken place between the cardinal and himself, and drawing the commission from his pocket, said, “Here, my dear Athos, this naturally belongs to you.

Athos smiled with one of his sweet and expressive smiles.

“Friend,” said he, “for Athos this is too much; for the Comte de la Fère it is too little. Keep the commission; it is yours. Alas! you have purchased it dearly enough.”

D’Artagnan left Athos’s chamber and went to that of Porthos. He found him clothed in a magnificent dress covered with splendid embroidery, admiring himself before a glass.

“Ah, ah! is that you, dear friend?” exclaimed Porthos. “how do you think these garments fit me?”

“Wonderfully,” said D’Artagnan; “but I come to offer you a dress which will become you still better.”

“What?” asked Porthos.

“That of a lieutenant of Musketeers.”

D’Artagnan related to Porthos the substance of his interview with the cardinal, and said, taking the commission from his pocket, “Here, my friend, write your name upon it and become my chief.”

Porthos cast his eyes over the commission and returned it to D’Artagnan, to the great astonishment of the young man.

“Yes,” said he, “yes, that would flatter me very much; but I should not have time enough to enjoy the distinction. During our expedition to Béthune the husband of my duchess died; so, my dear, the coffer of the defunct holding out its arms to me, I shall marry the widow. Look here! I was trying on my wedding suit. Keep the lieutenancy, my dear, keep it.”

The young man then entered the apartment of Aramis. He found him kneeling before a
pree-dieu,
with his head leaning on an open prayer book.

He described to him his interview with the cardinal, and said, for the third time drawing his commission from his pocket, “You, our friend, our intelligence, our invisible protector, accept this commission. You have merited it more than any of us by your wisdom and your counsels, always followed by such happy results.”

“Alas, dear friend!” said Aramis, “our late adventures have disgusted me with military life. This time my determination is irrevocably taken. After the siege I shall enter the house of the Lazarists. Keep the commission, D’Artagnan; the profession of arms suits you. You will be a brave and adventurous captain.”

D’Artagnan, his eye moist with gratitude though beaming with joy, went back to Athos, whom he found still at table contemplating the charms of his last glass of Malaga by the light of his lamp.

“Well,” said he, “they likewise have refused me.”

“That, dear friend, is because nobody is more worthy than yourself.”

He took a quill, wrote the name of D’Artagnan in the commission, and returned it to him.

“I shall then have no more friends,” said the young man. “Alas! nothing but bitter recollections.”

And he let his head sink upon his hands, while two large tears rolled down his cheeks.

“You are young,” replied Athos; “and your bitter recollections have time to change themselves into sweet remembrances.”

L
a Rochelle, deprived of the assistance of the English fleet and of the diversion promised by Buckingham, surrendered after a siege of a year. On the twenty-eighth of October, 1628, the capitulation was signed.

The king made his entrance into Paris on the twenty-third of December of the same year. He was received in triumph, as if he came from conquering an enemy and not Frenchmen. He entered by the Faubourg St. Jacques, under verdant arches.

D’Artagnan took possession of his command. Porthos left the service, and in the course of the following year married Mme. Coquenard; the coffer so much coveted contained eight hundred thousand livres.

Mousqueton had a magnificent livery, and enjoyed the satisfaction of which he had been ambitious all his life—that of standing behind a gilded carriage.

Aramis, after a journey into Lorraine, disappeared all at once, and ceased to write to his friends; they learned at a later period through Mme. de Chevreuse, who told it to two or three of her intimates, that, yielding to his vocation, he had retired into a convent—only into which, nobody knew.

Bazin became a lay brother.

Athos remained a Musketeer under the command of D’Artagnan till the year 1633, at which period, after a journey he made to Touraine, he also quit the service, under the pretext of having inherited a small property in Roussillon.

Grimaud followed Athos.

D’Artagnan fought three times with Rochefort, and wounded him three times.

“I shall probably kill you the fourth,” said he to him, holding out his hand to assist him to rise.

“It is much better both for you and for me to stop where we are,” answered the wounded man. “Corbleu! I am more your friend than you think—for after our very first encounter, I could by saying a word to the cardinal have had your throat cut! ”

They this time embraced heartily, and without retaining any malice.

Planchet obtained from Rochefort the rank of sergeant in the Piedmont regiment.

M. Bonacieux lived on very quietly, wholly ignorant of what had become of his wife, and caring very little about it. One day he had the imprudence to recall himself to the memory of the cardinal. The cardinal had him informed that he would provide for him so that he should never want for anything in future. In fact, M. Bonacieux, having left his house at seven o‘clock in the evening to go to the Louvre, never appeared again in the Rue des Fossoyeurs; the opinion of those who seemed to be best informed was that he was fed and lodged in some royal castle, at the expense of his generous Eminence.

1
(p. 7) Louis
XIV
: Also known as the Sun King, Louis XIV (1638-1715) brought the French absolutist monarchy to its apogee of power and influence in Europe. His reign, the longest of any French king (1643-1715), saw the consolidation of power in his hands at the expense of the nobility. At the time of the action in The Three Musketeers, he has yet to be born.

2
(p. 7) they will not find the likeness of Louis XIII, Anne of Austria,
Richelieu, Mazarin,
and the courtiers of the
period,
less faithful than in the history of M.
Anquetil:
Louis XIII (1601-1643) became king of France upon the assassination of his father, Henri IV, in 1610; his mother, Marie de Médicis, was named his regent until he came of age but continued to exert considerable influence over him. Louis was married to Anne of Austria, daughter of King Philip III of Spain, in 1615, when he was just fourteen. Theirs was an unhappy marriage, in part because of her love for the English Duke of Buckingham and her incessant political intrigues. Upon the death of Louis XIII, Anne became regent for her son, Louis XIV She directed much of her energy to undermining the influence of Armand-Jean du Plessis, cardinal et duc de Richelieu, best known as Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642); the goals of this influential prime minister for Louis XIII were to safeguard royal authority, generally at the expense of the nobility, and to establish French power in Europe. In
The Three Musketeers,
Richelieu leads the siege of La Rochelle and tries to compromise the Queen’s reputation. Giulio Mazarini (1602-1661), an ally of Anne, succeeded Cardinal Richelieu as prime minister; Dumas mentions Mazarini here in the preface, but he does not otherwise appear in
The
Three
Musketeers.
Louis-Pierre Anquetil wrote
Histoire de France depuis les Gaules jusqu ’a la fin de la monarchie (The
History
of France from the Gauls until the Fall of the Monarchy,
1805), a major source for
The Three Musketeers.

3
(p. 7)
M. de Treville:
Arnaud-jean de Peyer, comte de Troisvilles, was the captain-lieutenant of the first company of musketeers of the King’s Guard from 1634 to 1646. At the royal court Troisvilles was pronounced “Tréville.”

4
(p. 11)
the market town of Meung.
Meung-sur-Loire is a small city on the Loire River where D‘Artagnan meets the “man from Meung” (Monsieur de Rochefort), whom he will pursue throughout the novel.

5
(p. 11)
the author of the
Romance of the Rose: This long poetic allegory on the “art of love” belongs to the genre of courtly love poetry and dates from the thirteenth century. Guillaume de Lorris wrote the first half in a platonic, idealized style; Jean de Meun, to whom Dumas is referring, wrote the second part, which is considered to be more realistic but also more misogynistic.

6
(p. 11) Don
Quixote.
He is the idealistic and impractical protagonist of Miguel de Cervantes’s novel
Don Quixote de la Mancha
(part 1, 1605; part 2, 1615).

7
(p. 12)
an infallible sign by which a Gascon may always be detected:
Gascony is a historical region in southwestern France that encompasses such modern French
departéments
as the Gers, Landes, and Hautes-Pyrénées. The capital of Gascony was Auch; other important Gascon cities include Biarritz, Lourdes, and Tarbes. Gascons are stereotypically known for their courage and quick tempers.

8
(p. 13)
“Fight the more for duels being forbidden”:
A royal edict of Louis XIII forbad dueling, under penalty of death. The edict was largely meant to impose the king’s power on the rebellious nobility, who resisted the power of the monarchy and for whom dueling was a part of a code of honor that was above the law.

9
(p. 21)
“as soon as the duke leaves London”:
The reference is to George Villiers, duke of Buckingham (1592-1628). As a favorite of King Charles I of England, the Duke enjoyed great power and influence. His passionate love of Queen Anne of Austria, wife of French king Louis XIII, led him to take risks to see her, even to the point of entering the Louvre disguised as a Musketeer. In The Three
Musketeers,
Queen Anne gives the duke twelve diamond studs that she received from Louis for her birthday. The duke was an exceedingly handsome man, as can be seen in the well-known portrait of him by the Flemish painter Peter-Paul Rubens. He was, however, extremely unpopular because of his inept handling of military and foreign-policy matters; he was assassinated by navy lieutenant John Felton in 1628.

10
(p. 26)
to the gate of St. Antoine at Paris:
The gate of St. Antoine was once one of the entry points into Paris, which was encircled by walls at the time of the novel. The other Paris gates
(portes)
were the Porte St.-Martin, the Porte St.-Jacques, and the Porte St.-Michel.

11
(p. 61)
Thus spoke and acted the gallant knights of the time of Charlemagne.
Charlemagne (c.742-814) unified much of western Europe as the Holy Roman Empire in 800, when he was consecrated emperor by Pope Leo III. Charlemagne and his knights were renowned for their valor and honor.

12
(p. 70)
Mademoiselle de Chemerault
A lady in waiting to Queen Anne of Austria, Mademoiselle de Chemerault was in fact a spy for Cardinal Richelieu. Disgraced in 1639, she was forced to leave the Queen’s service.

13
(p. 71)
“Yes, sire; as complete as that of the Bridge of Cé”:
The bridge was the site of King Louis XIII’s military victory over the armies of his mother and former regent, Marie de Médicis, during one of the several revolts she led against the King, who repeatedly banished her.

14
(p. 81)
St.-Simon:
Claude de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon (1607-1693), was a favorite of King Louis XIII, who made him a duke and peer. St.-Simon eventually fell out of favor and retired to Blaye. His son, Louis de Rouvroy (1675-1755), was one of France’s great memoirists; his
Memoires
provide a close look at life in the court of King Louis XIV

15
(p. 83)
“That it is only the Pope who is infallible”:
The doctrine of the infallibility of the Pope in matters of faith and morals was a major issue at the Council of Trent (1545-1563). Though considered part of Catholic dogma from the beginning of the Church of Christ, the infallibility of the Pope was questioned at the time of the Protestant Reformation. The Vatican Council of 1870 formulated the dogma of the Pope’s infallibility, attributing it only to his
ex cathedra
decrees or teachings.

16
(p. 110)
“on the day when he scattered his pearls”:
Dumas recounts an incident in which the Duke of Buckingham, while courting Anne of Austria in 1625, undid a strand of pearls and scattered them to the courtiers, who willingly ran after them. No doubt impressed by this aristocratic generosity, Dumas mentions it here, as well as in
Louis XIV et son siècle (Louis XIV and His Century)
and in
Dix Ans plus tard ou le Vicomte de Bragelonne (Ten Years Later; or, The Vicomte de Bragelonne,
also known in English translation
as The Man in the Iron Mask) .