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Alexandre Dumas
M. de Tréville is in a bad mood, but he greets D'Artagnan politely and smiles at the Béarnese accent. Then he holds up a hand and calls Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, louder each time. Athos does not come. The other two walk in looking careless and obedient at once. Tréville paces, then stops in front of them. The king said last night that he might recruit Musketeers from the cardinal's Guards. The cardinal had smiled over a riot in the Rue Férou, where his men arrested the king's. Tréville names Porthos and Aramis. He asks why Aramis wanted a uniform instead of a cassock, and why Porthos hangs a straw sword from gold. Where is Athos? Porthos says smallpox. Tréville does not believe it.
Outside, ten heads press the tapestry and repeat every insult down to the street gate. Tréville says he will resign and take a lieutenancy with the cardinal, or turn abbé. The hôtel explodes. Porthos then tells the true fight. They were six against six. Two Musketeers died before they could draw. Athos, badly wounded, tried to rise twice and fell. They did not surrender. They were dragged, then escaped. The Guards left Athos for dead. Aramis adds that he killed one man with the man's own sword after his broke. Tréville's tone softens. The tapestry lifts. Athos walks in, pale, in full kit, and asks what is wanted of him. Tréville seizes his hand in praise and does not see the pain. Athos faints. A surgeon who happens to be in the hôtel says the faint is from loss of blood, not a hopeless wound.
The cabinet empties. D'Artagnan stays, tenacious as a Gascon. Tréville has forgotten him, then remembers the old neighbour. D'Artagnan came to ask for a Musketeer uniform. After two hours in this house he already doubts he merits it. Tréville says the king must decide, and no one enters without campaigns, a brilliant action, or two years in a lesser regiment. He will still do something for the father's sake: a free place at the Royal Academy for riding, sword, and dancing, and the right to call again. D'Artagnan feels the chill and names the stolen letter. He describes the man of Meung. Tréville matches a scar on the cheek, the pale face, the woman called Milady, and Brussels.
He warns the boy not to throw himself against that rock. Then a new fear takes him. What if this useful hatred is a cardinal's trap? He tests D'Artagnan. He says the king and the cardinal are the best of friends, and that their quarrels are feints for fools. If the young man has been taught to hate the cardinal, they should part. D'Artagnan answers simply. His father told him to stoop to nobody except the king, the cardinal, and Tréville. The frankness impresses Tréville and does not clear the doubt. He offers the hôtel at all hours and writes the academy letter. At the window D'Artagnan sees the thief of Meung, goes crimson, and bolts crying that the man shall not escape. Tréville is left wondering whether the flight is rage or a clever way out.
Help from an old family name still comes with a check on who sent you. After D'Artagnan tells the Meung story, Tréville praises the cardinal on purpose to see whether the boy is a planted spy.
When a patron tests you, answer the simple truth you can stand by, and do not perform the hatred you think they want.
D'Artagnan crosses the antechamber at three bounds and slams into a Musketeer coming from a private room. The man howls, seizes his belt, and will not take excuse me. It is Athos, pale from the dressing, and the first duel is set for noon.
What this chapter proves — the patterns beneath the scene
In this chapter: Ambition Without a Name · Reading a Political Room.
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.
Ambition Without a Name
In Tréville's office the boy tells his story and asks to be a Musketeer. The captain will not give the coat for a lost letter and a yard fight. He offers a path through Dessessart's Guards. D'Artagnan wants the name now. He gets a corridor.
Key Insight
A rank people can see is not the same as a path that can earn it. If you refuse the corridor because it is not the coat, you are in love with the label.
Chapter 03
M. de Tréville was at the moment in rather ill-humor, nevertheless he saluted the young man politely, who bowed to the very ground; and he smiled on receiving D’Artagnan’s response, the Béarnese accent of which recalled to him at the same time his youth and his country—a double remembrance which makes a man smile at all ages; but stepping toward the antechamber and making a sign to D’Artagnan with his hand, as if to ask his permission to finish with others before he began with him, he called three times, with a louder voice at each time, so that he…
Public-domain chapter text, formatted for reading.
On one page, copy Tréville's test in three beats: the offer of the academy, the praise of the cardinal as a friend of the king, and D'Artagnan's father's list. Under each beat write what a spy might have said instead.
When did someone help you and still check whether you had been sent to harm them, and how did you answer?
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Reading a Political Room
Tréville greets the Béarnese accent, then calls Athos, Porthos, and Aramis louder each time. He paces and scolds in a voice the house can hear. The audience is also a performance for the Louvre. D'Artagnan wants a cassock. He is watching a captain manage two rooms at once.
Key Insight
A public scolding can be cover for a private defence. Read the volume. If the rebuke is loud enough for the next building, it may not be meant for the men in front of you.
