A Terrible Vision — The Three Musketeers

The cardinal studies D'Artagnan over his manuscript and recites the young man's life as if he had been in the room: Béarn, Meung, the lost letter to Monsieur de Tréville, the walk behind the Chartreux, England, and the queen's diamond still on his hand. Cavois called the night Madame Bonacieux was taken. That, Richelieu says, is how he treats people who obey too well. He has a plan. He offers an ensign's commission in his Guards, and a company after the campaign.

D'Artagnan refuses. His friends sit with the king's Musketeers and Guards. His enemies serve his Eminence. To take the chair now would look like selling himself. The cardinal tells him to stay free and guard his hatreds, then warns that once he withdraws his hand he would not give an obolus for the Gascon's life. At the door D'Artagnan almost turns back. The face of Athos stops him. He tells his friends only of the refused rank. Aramis and Porthos say he was right. Athos, alone with him, says he did what he ought to have done, and perhaps he was wrong.

The next day they pack. Porthos parades the Rue aux Ours; Madame Coquenard weeps from a window while Monsieur Coquenard hopes the campaign will kill this new-clothed cousin. Aramis writes a long letter; Kitty waits to leave for Tours. Athos drinks the last bottle of Spanish wine. D'Artagnan marches past the Bastille and does not see Milady on a light chestnut horse. She points him out to two ill-looking men. They mount horses a servant without livery has waiting, and they follow the company out of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine.