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Alexandre Dumas
Paris talks of nothing but the aldermen's ball and the king's favourite ballet, La Merlaison. Guards take every key of the Hôtel de Ville. The king arrives late, blaming the cardinal, and looks dull. The queen looks weary too. Then a gallery curtain is drawn. The cardinal appears as a Spanish cavalier and smiles a terrible smile: Anne is not wearing the diamond studs.
The king goes straight to her and asks why. She says she feared an accident in such a crowd and offers to send to the Louvre. He gives her an hour. The cardinal then puts a small casket of two studs into the king's hand and tells him to count if she has only ten. She comes out dressed as a huntress. All twelve stones are on her left shoulder. After the ballet the king offers her the two extra stones. She pretends surprise and says she will then have fourteen. He counts. She has twelve. The cardinal claims he only wanted to present the two as a gift. Anne smiles and says those two alone cost him as much as the rest cost the king.
D'Artagnan watches from the crowd, one of four people who understand the scene. Masked Constance leads him through dark corridors to a closet beside the queen's rooms. A white hand through the tapestry leaves a ring in his. When the company has gone, Constance pushes him out and tells him a note at home will say where to meet her. He goes like a child. He is in love.
A trap only works if the count comes out the way the trapper planned. Anne walks into the ballet as a huntress with all twelve diamond studs on her shoulder, so the two stones in the cardinal's casket become a failed gift instead of a public shame.
Do the hidden work first, then let the room do the counting.
D'Artagnan runs home at three. Planchet says no one brought a letter, but one has come of itself and lies on the green table in a sealed room. Constance names St. Cloud at ten, in front of the pavilion at the corner of M. d'Estrées's house.
What this chapter proves — the pattern beneath the scene
In this chapter, the lesson is Serving Two Masters — A Blank the Cardinal Already Signed.
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.
Serving Two Masters
At the Hôtel de Ville the king arrives late and looks dull. The cardinal appears in a gallery and watches the queen's diamond studs. Two are new. The ballet becomes a count. Louis is satisfied. Richelieu has lost a public scene and has not lost the war.
Key Insight
When two masters share a spectacle, the winner is not always the one who smiles. Sometimes the loser keeps the war and lets you keep the evening.
Chapter 22
On the morrow, nothing was talked of in Paris but the ball which the aldermen of the city were to give to the king and queen, and in which their Majesties were to dance the famous La Merlaison—the favorite ballet of the king. Eight days had been occupied in preparations at the Hôtel de Ville for this important evening. The city carpenters had erected scaffolds upon which the invited ladies were to be placed; the city grocer had ornamented the chambers with two hundred flambeaux of white wax, a piece of luxury unheard of at that period; and twenty violins…
Public-domain chapter text, formatted for reading.
Take Anne's hour between the king's demand and the ballet. List the proof you would need to walk into a room where a rival already holds two missing pieces of your work. Then write one sentence you could say, as she does, that forces the other person to count in public.
When did you wait to be thanked before the work was finished, and what did that delay cost?
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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.
Every Smile Hides a Warrant
Hear the court before you trust a smile or a warrant.
Deep diving the literary elements.
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