In Which the Plot Thickens — The Three Musketeers

D'Artagnan leaves Tréville and takes the long way home, smiling at the stars. He is already in love with Mme. Bonacieux: pretty, secret, close to the court, and bound to him by the rescue. He does not spare a thought for the landlord he pushed into the Guards. Love, the narrator says, is the most selfish of passions. Near Aramis's house, between the Rue Cassette and the Rue Servandoni, he sees a cloaked figure counting windows. He hides, sure he has caught the theologian's niece. She taps three times on Aramis's shutter. A light answers, then dies. Two taps from inside, one from the street, and the shutter opens a crack. She shows a handkerchief. Another woman, not Aramis, trades her a second cloth. When the visitor turns, the hood comes down too late. It is Mme. Bonacieux, out at half past eleven after sending for Laporte to take her back to the Louvre.

He follows. She runs, then sinks to one knee and cries that they may kill her, they will know nothing. His voice undoes the terror. She takes his arm, denies knowing Aramis, and says the person at the window was a woman whose name is not her secret. She will accept a gentleman's escort, not a spy. On the Rue de la Harpe she stops at a door almost hidden in the wall. He mentions the ciphered handkerchief he put back in her pocket, and she begs him to be silent: one word of it could ruin her. She will share her own secrets, not other people's. Midnight is the hour she is expected. She offers gratitude, not love, and warns that five minutes late can be five ages. He keeps his word and does not watch the door.

At his own alley Planchet is waiting with worse news. Athos was found in D'Artagnan's rooms and taken for him by the men in black and the Guards. Athos chose the arrest: his master needs liberty because he knows everything, and Athos knows nothing. In three days he will give his name. Papers have been seized. Porthos and Aramis never came. D'Artagnan leaves Planchet at the empty house, sends word to meet at the Pomme-de-Pin, and runs for Tréville. Tréville is on duty at the Louvre with his company.

Crossing toward the New Bridge, D'Artagnan sees a woman in the black mantle and a Musketeer with a handkerchief to his face. The outline is Mme. Bonacieux on Aramis's arm, a quarter of an hour after she swore she did not know him. Jealousy decides the rest. He cuts them off before the Samaritaine lamp. The Musketeer answers with a foreign accent. It is not Aramis. Mme. Bonacieux reminds D'Artagnan of his word as a soldier. Swords come out; she throws herself between them and names the stranger: the Duke of Buckingham, and now he may ruin them all. D'Artagnan asks pardon, says he loves her, and offers his life. Buckingham takes the hand, tells him to follow at twenty paces to the Louvre, and to slay any watcher. They enter by the wicket of the Echelle without a fight. D'Artagnan goes on to the Pomme-de-Pin, finds Porthos and Aramis, and tells them he finished the affair alone. The narrator leaves the three friends there and follows the duke and his guide into the labyrinth of the Louvre.