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Alexandre Dumas
Behind the Luxembourg, Athos pays the goatkeeper to leave and posts the lackeys as sentinels. Lord de Winter will not fight men with shepherds' names. Athos agrees that blood is not pistoles. He, Porthos, and Aramis whisper their true names. Athos then tells his man he would have been wiser not to ask. Athos is believed dead and will have to kill him so the secret does not roam. The Englishman thinks it a jest. It is not. Eight swords catch the sunset.
Athos fences like a school lesson and kills with one thrust through the heart. Porthos, cooled by Chantilly, wounds his man in the thigh and carries him to a carriage. Aramis drives his fifty paces until the man runs. D'Artagnan stays on the defensive, disarms de Winter, and, when the baron slips, holds a point at his throat. He could kill him. He spares him for the sake of his sister. That was the plan behind the smiles. A purse falls from the dead man's clothes. De Winter will not take it. Athos will not take spoils either. He throws the purse to the English coachman.
The courtesy buys D'Artagnan an introduction to Milady Clarik at Number 6, Place Royale. Athos warns she is a cardinal's agent and will take his head. D'Artagnan says he loved Constance with his heart and loves Milady with his head. He wants to know what part she plays at court. Athos hides when de Winter arrives. At the hôtel, Milady is spending money while other English leave France. She thanks D'Artagnan with a sweet voice and a look that makes him shudder. In a mirror he sees her bite a handkerchief until it spots with blood. She says de Winter is her brother-in-law; her child is the heir if he does not marry. She asks if he has thought of joining the cardinal, and if he has been in England. He praises the cardinal and claims a horse-buying trip. Kitty looks at him kindly on the stairs. He notices only the mistress.
Mercy is never only kindness when the person you spare can introduce you. After D'Artagnan holds a point at Lord de Winter's throat and lets him live for his sister's sake, Milady thanks him in a sweet voice while a mirror shows her bite a handkerchief until it bleeds.
When someone thanks you for a favour that also opens their house, watch the face they wear when they think you have looked away.
The duel does not wipe the procurator's dinner from Porthos's mind. Mousqueton brushes him for an hour, and he walks toward the Rue aux Ours already seeing a locked coffer in the wall and a table that will, he hopes, feed a campaign.
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
Athos posts the lackeys. Lord de Winter will not fight four men with one name. They pair off. D'Artagnan wounds the Englishman and then uses the win to enter Milady's house. The sword is still a calling card.
Key Insight
Some rooms only open after a public win. That is not always honour. Sometimes it is ambition borrowing a duel as an introduction.
Chapter 31
The hour having come, they went with their four lackeys to a spot behind the Luxembourg given up to the feeding of goats. Athos threw a piece of money to the goatkeeper to withdraw. The lackeys were ordered to act as sentinels. A silent party soon drew near to the same enclosure, entered, and joined the Musketeers. Then, according to foreign custom, the presentations took place. The Englishmen were all men of rank; consequently the odd names of their adversaries were for them not only a matter of surprise, but of annoyance. “But after all,” said Lord de Winter, when…
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Map the Luxembourg field to the Place Royale in ten lines: the whispered names, the spared throat, the thrown purse, and the sweet thanks. Then write one sentence stating what D'Artagnan spent and what he thought he had bought.
When did you spare someone in public and walk, the same day, through a door their thanks unlocked?
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