Plan of Campaign — The Three Musketeers

D'Artagnan goes straight to Monsieur de Tréville. In a few minutes the cloaked agent will warn the cardinal. He tells enough: the honour, perhaps the life, of the queen, a mission to London, and a minister who would give the world to stop him. Tréville will not take the secret. He will not send the boy alone. Past Bondy he will be assassinated, and the letter will die with him. In work of this kind, four must set out so that one may arrive. He will send Athos to the waters of Forges for a wound that still hurts, and Porthos and Aramis to keep their friend company. D'Artagnan must write to Dessessart tonight, so the visit looks official if a spy saw him. The three hundred pistoles will do.

A lackey brings Aramis a leave he never asked for. D'Artagnan tells him the woman with the handkerchief has gone back to Tours and would not write, so as not to compromise him. Aramis comes back to life and asks only that her name stay unspoken. Athos already holds Tréville's note. Porthos cannot believe the company grants leave without a request. D'Artagnan names London and will not say why. He divides the bag, seventy-five pistoles each, and warns them they will not all arrive.

Porthos wants a reason, and he would split the roads. Athos says a king does not give reasons, and he will not trust lackeys with a secret. A sealed letter cannot be copied, so they ride as a troop: if one falls, the next takes the paper. D'Artagnan, as bearer, adopts Athos's plan. They take the money and prepare to leave in half an hour.