Prestige · $2.99/month
Chapter audio, theme analysis, and downloads
Alexandre Dumas
D'Artagnan runs across half Paris in Kitty's clothes, chased by a patrol and hooted at by early workmen, and nearly breaks Athos's door. Grimaud takes him for a woman, then an assassin. Athos laughs at the petticoats until he sees the terror. Behind a bolted door the Gascon whispers that Milady wears a fleur-de-lis on her shoulder. Athos matches her as if the description were a wound: fair, brilliant blue eyes, a missing tooth beside the left eyetooth, a small rosy brand someone tried to poultice away. She is the wife he thought dead. D'Artagnan warns she will follow him to the world's end. Athos says they leave Paris the day after tomorrow. Until then he will walk with his friend, and the Gascon must mistrust even his own shadow, because this woman is a cardinal's spy.
The sapphire Athos once gave her cannot come back onto his hand. He will not wear a ring that has passed through hers, and he will not sell his mother's jewel. They pledge it, half and half, after D'Artagnan says he will take the share rather than watch the stone thrown in the Seine. At the Rue des Fossoyeurs, Monsieur Bonacieux stands at the door with a hateful look and says a pretty girl is waiting upstairs. Kitty crouches on the landing: D'Artagnan promised protection, and it is he who ruined her. She wants out of France. Aramis writes a sealed note placing her with a friend of Madame de Bois-Tracy in the provinces. Kitty adds that Bonacieux has been to Milady twice, and again last evening. Athos finds the street door already shut. They leave Planchet to watch the house.
The Jew advances three hundred pistoles on the ring and would buy it for five hundred. Athos pays a thousand livres for a black Andalusian without bargaining, then three hundred for Grimaud's Picard cob. When saddle and arms empty the purse, he sends D'Artagnan back to sell the sapphire outright. Ready money, he says, is needful, and they must learn how to make sacrifices. Two thousand livres return. Athos finds at home the resources he did not expect.
A family jewel can become too stained to wear and too costly to keep. Athos will not put the sapphire back on after Milady, will not sell his mother's gift, then sends D'Artagnan to the Jew once the Andalusian has emptied the purse.
When honour and the week disagree, you can name the sacrifice before the object leaves the house.
At four o'clock the four friends sit with Athos, outfits done. Planchet brings two letters: a small billet sealed with a dove in green wax, and a square epistle under the cardinal's arms. D'Artagnan seizes the little one first.
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 runs to Athos in Kitty's clothes with Milady's secret and her money. Athos laughs at the petticoats, then uses English gold to kit himself without owing Madame. He will not let the brand story become a debt to the living woman.
Key Insight
Refusing one kind of funding is still ambition. It is ambition that will not let a private history pay for a public coat.
Chapter 38
D’Artagnan was so completely bewildered that without taking any heed of what might become of Kitty he ran at full speed across half Paris, and did not stop till he came to Athos’s door. The confusion of his mind, the terror which spurred him on, the cries of some of the patrol who started in pursuit of him, and the hooting of the people who, notwithstanding the early hour, were going to their work, only made him precipitate his course. He crossed the court, ran up the two flights to Athos’s apartment, and knocked at the door enough to break…
Public-domain chapter text, formatted for reading.
Write three lines: why Athos will not wear the ring, why he will not sell it at first, and why he sells it after the Andalusian. End with one sentence stating what the two thousand livres bought that the relic no longer could.
When did you sell, pawn, or give up an object you had called a relic, and what week did that money actually pay for?
Purchase the complete book to access all chapters and support classic literature
Available in paperback, hardcover, and e-book formats
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.
Guides, life skills, and the full library.More ways to read The Three Musketeers: guides, life skills, and the wider library.
Unlock study guides and downloads, early access, and exclusive content — and support free access for everyone.
