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Alexandre Dumas
When Athos does not reappear, d'Artagnan and Porthos tell M. de Tréville. Aramis has five days' leave, said to be for Rouen. Tréville goes at once to the criminal lieutenant and learns Athos is in Fort l'Evêque. The Musketeer now gives his real name, denies knowing the Bonacieux household, and names witnesses who dined with him at Tréville's, including the Duc de la Trémouille. The commissary wants the robe's revenge on the sword, then hesitates at those names. Athos is sent toward the cardinal, but Richelieu is already at the Louvre, feeding the king's jealousy. He says Chevreuse slipped into Paris, that the queen renewed a secret correspondence, and that a Musketeer with a sword stopped the arrest of her messenger. Louis starts for the queen's rooms in pale rage. Tréville walks in.
The king snaps that he has heard fine things about the Musketeers. Tréville answers with the street arrest of Athos, the parade through a crowd, and the dungeon. Richelieu claims Athos attacked four commissaries an hour earlier. Tréville places Athos in his own salon with Trémouille and Châlus, then places d'Artagnan in the same hôtel from half past nine to half past ten, an hour after the raid. The cardinal produces a written report. Tréville asks whether a gownsman's paper outweighs a swordsman's word. The king, shaken, talks of sending the case to judges. Tréville warns that the army will not like being handled as a police matter. Louis explodes. Tréville offers his own sword and says he will share Athos's cell.
The king asks him to swear, by the late king, that Athos was at the hôtel and took no part. Tréville swears. Richelieu objects that a release will bury the truth. Louis, in a low voice, calls it policy to give the swordsmen apparent security. The cardinal smiles, yields, and even invites the signature. Tréville would have preferred a fight; he does not trust a sudden gift from this man. He takes the order, frees Athos, and warns d'Artagnan that the Jussac wound is paid and Bernajoux's is not. The door has barely closed when Richelieu tells the king that Buckingham spent five days in Paris and left that morning.
A sudden yes from a strong opponent is not the same as a loss. Richelieu smiles, invites the king to sign Athos's release, and the moment Tréville leaves the room he tells Louis that Buckingham spent five days in Paris and left that morning.
When someone yields too fast, ask what new subject they needed the room cleared to name.
Those few words recover the ground Richelieu had lost. Louis grows pale and red by turns and cries that Buckingham came for his honour, not for Huguenots. He wants the queen's papers, and he will not be told to wait.
What this chapter proves — the pattern beneath the scene
In this chapter, the lesson is Reading a Political Room — Every Smile Hides a Warrant.
The card below names the pattern this chapter proves — carry it with you into Dumas's yard at Meung, the noon fight, the diamond road, the bastion breakfast, and the trial on the Lys.
Reading a Political Room
Athos is in Fort l'Evêque under his real name. Tréville goes to the criminal lieutenant. The king and the cardinal argue over who may hold a Musketeer. Men of the robe and men of the sword are not two moral worlds. They are two desks fighting for the same body.
Key Insight
When two kinds of authority claim one prisoner, the question is not who is just. It is which desk needs the body more this week.
Chapter 15
On the day after these events had taken place, Athos not having reappeared, M. de Tréville was informed by D’Artagnan and Porthos of the circumstance. As to Aramis, he had asked for leave of absence for five days, and was gone, it was said, to Rouen on family business. M. de Tréville was the father of his soldiers. The lowest or the least known of them, as soon as he assumed the uniform of the company, was as sure of his aid and support as if he had been his own brother. He repaired, then, instantly to the office of…
Public-domain chapter text, formatted for reading.
Write the Louvre scene as two columns: what Tréville wins while he is present, and what Richelieu says the moment the door closes. End the second column with Buckingham's five days in Paris, not with Athos's walk out of Fort l'Evêque.
When has a rival let you win a visible point, then changed the subject the moment you left? What would you have stayed to hear?
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Other theme-by-theme analyses from this book.
The Cassock He Asked For
Follow the Gascon who wants a cassock and is offered a commission.
The First Fight Was Not the One You Planned
Watch whom you stand beside when the first fight is not the one you planned.
A Trial Honour Will Not Name
Sit the trial on the Lys and ask what honour will not name.
Breakfast on a Bastion
Stay with the diamond run, the bastion, and the ride to Béthune.
A Blank the Cardinal Already Signed
See what it costs to please a king and a cardinal at once.
Deep diving the literary elements.
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