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Alexandre Dumas
At two in the morning the four leave Paris by the Barrière St. Denis. In the dark they expect ambush and keep quiet. Daylight loosens their tongues. At Chantilly a stranger toasts the cardinal, will acknowledge no king but his Eminence, and draws on Porthos. Athos tells Porthos to kill him and catch up. Five hundred paces on he says there goes one. D'Artagnan thinks the loudest man was taken for the chief. They wait two hours at Beauvais. Porthos does not come. Between high banks, men pretending to fill ruts pull muskets from a ditch. Aramis takes a ball through the shoulder. D'Artagnan's hat is shot away. The letter was not in it. Athos says the drunk at breakfast was not drunk. At Crèvecœur they leave Aramis and Bazin.
At the Golden Lily in Amiens the host wants them in rooms at opposite ends of the house. They sleep in the common chamber, barricade the door, and set Planchet across the threshold. Someone tries the door at two and claims a mistake. At four the stable boys split Grimaud's head. The horses are ruined. Athos goes in to pay. The host cries the coins are bad, and four armed men rush him. Athos shouts that he is taken and tells D'Artagnan to spur.
Planchet sees him still fighting behind glass. They ride stolen horses until both die a hundred paces from Calais. On the quay a dusty gentleman holds the only crossing order the cardinal will honour. D'Artagnan follows him into a wood and fights him as Planchet pins the lackey Lubin. He calls the first three thrusts for Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. The Comte de Wardes puts a point into his breast before the fourth thrust drops him. At the governor's house he presents the order in de Wardes's name and describes the real count as the Béarnese they must stop. They sail as the port cannon fires. The wound has only glanced a rib. From Dover he writes Buckingham's name because he has no English. Patrick takes him from Windsor to the marshes. The duke knows him as the young man from the Pont Neuf, asks if the queen is safe, and breaks a letter pierced by de Wardes's sword. He sends Patrick to the king and gallops for London.
Loyalty is sometimes the shout that tells a friend to leave you in the room. When the host at Amiens cries the coins are bad and four men rush him, Athos shouts that he is taken and tells D'Artagnan to spur.
When a shared job depends on one packet arriving, decide in advance who rides on if you are the one held.
As they ride, the duke tries to learn not all that happened, but all D'Artagnan himself knows. He cannot understand how the cardinal, so bent on keeping this young man out of England, failed to take him on the road. They do not slacken at the gates of London.
What this chapter proves — the patterns beneath the scene
In this chapter: Loyalty When It Costs · Serving Two Masters.
The cards below name the patterns this chapter proves — carry them with you into Dumas's yard at Meung, the noon fight, the diamond road, the bastion breakfast, and the trial on the Lys.
Loyalty When It Costs
At two in the morning the four leave by the Barrière St. Denis. A stranger toasts only the cardinal and draws on Porthos. Athos, Porthos, and Aramis fall. D'Artagnan and Planchet keep riding. The queen's diamonds move because three friends absorb the ambush.
Key Insight
A loyal run that arrives with one man standing was not cheap. Count the people who did not make the last mile.
Serving Two Masters
The four leave Paris at two in the morning. At Chantilly a stranger toasts only the cardinal and draws on Porthos. Athos, Porthos, and Aramis fall on the road. D'Artagnan reaches the coast. The queen's errand and the cardinal's ambush use the same highway.
Key Insight
A mission that needs friends to absorb the hits is already a two-master job. Someone is paying so you can arrive looking like a single loyal man.
Chapter 20
At two o’clock in the morning, our four adventurers left Paris by the Barrière St. Denis. As long as it was dark they remained silent; in spite of themselves they submitted to the influence of the obscurity, and apprehended ambushes on every side. With the first rays of day their tongues were loosened; with the sun gaiety revived. It was like the eve of a battle; the heart beat, the eyes laughed, and they felt that the life they were perhaps going to lose, was, after all, a good thing. Besides, the appearance of the caravan was formidable. The black…
Public-domain chapter text, formatted for reading.
List Porthos at Chantilly, Aramis at Crèvecœur, and Athos at the Golden Lily. Beside each name write what the other side spent to peel them off, and what D'Artagnan still had in his pocket when he left them. End with one line: who would you have been under orders to abandon.
Whose order to leave you would you actually obey, and whose would you ruin the delivery to refuse?
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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.
Every Smile Hides a Warrant
Hear the court before you trust a smile or a warrant.
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