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Alexandre Dumas
D'Artagnan cannot keep pace with Milady's carriage to St. Germain. He sends Planchet for two of Tréville's horses and stops at Athos's. Athos is drinking the Spanish wine from Picardy and will not let women pay for his outfit. He shrugs when D'Artagnan says Milady has an influence over his life. Constance is lost, Athos says, and so much the worse if she is found. D'Artagnan still loves her, but he has no trail. He claims that finding Milady is also finding Constance, because she knows the man in the black cloak. Athos will not ride. He has no horse. He uncorks another bottle.
At St. Germain, Planchet knows the face on the terrace: Lubin, lackey of the Comte de Wardes, whom they wounded at Calais. D'Artagnan hides behind a filbert hedge while Planchet chats. Lubin does not remember him. Milady's maid mistakes Planchet for Lubin and hands him a note for his master. It asks de Wardes when he will walk in the forest, and names a lackey in black and red at the Hôtel Field of the Cloth of Gold. De Wardes is alive, with four sword wounds. They overtake the carriage. Milady is in a rage with a richly dressed cavalier. She smashes her fan. D'Artagnan offers to punish the man's want of courtesy. She says the man is her brother.
The cavalier calls D'Artagnan a stupid fellow. She tells the coachman to go home and leaves them facing each other. D'Artagnan knows him now: the Englishman of Amiens who won his horse and nearly won Athos's diamond. They name a duel behind the Luxembourg at six, three friends each. The Englishman is Lord de Winter, Baron Sheffield. D'Artagnan rides back, tells Athos everything except the letter to de Wardes, and gathers Porthos and Aramis. Porthos fences the wall. Aramis shuts himself in with his poem. Athos calls for wine. D'Artagnan smiles over a private plan.
Curiosity can look like loyalty when the person you love has vanished. On the road to Saint Germain, D'Artagnan tells himself that hunting Milady is also hunting Constance, because she knows the man in the black cloak.
Before you follow a new face, say aloud whose name you are still using and whose fight you are about to join.
At the goat pasture behind the Luxembourg, Athos pays the keeper to leave and posts the lackeys as sentinels. A silent English party walks in. Lord de Winter refuses to cross swords with men whose names sound like shepherds.
What this chapter proves — the pattern beneath the scene
In this chapter, the lesson is Ambition Without a Name — The Cassock He Asked For.
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.
Ambition Without a Name
D'Artagnan cannot keep Milady's carriage to St. Germain. He borrows Tréville's horses. Athos drinks and will not let women pay for his outfit. The boy wants the Englishwoman's influence and tells himself it is the war. Desire and advancement share a saddle.
Key Insight
Ambition likes a useful attachment. If the person you chase can also kit your war, ask which want is riding.
Chapter 30
D’Artagnan followed Milady without being perceived by her. He saw her get into her carriage, and heard her order the coachman to drive to St. Germain. It was useless to try to keep pace on foot with a carriage drawn by two powerful horses. D’Artagnan therefore returned to the Rue Férou. In the Rue de Seine he met Planchet, who had stopped before the house of a pastry cook, and was contemplating with ecstasy a cake of the most appetizing appearance. He ordered him to go and saddle two horses in M. de Tréville’s stables—one for himself, D’Artagnan, and one…
Public-domain chapter text, formatted for reading.
On one page, list what D'Artagnan still wants for Constance and what the St. Germain ride actually gives him: Lubin, a letter, a smashed fan, and a named Englishman. Circle the moment the second hunt stops serving the first.
When have you followed a new person and told yourself you were still searching for someone already gone?
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Other theme-by-theme analyses from this book.
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.
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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