The Utility of Stovepipes — The Three Musketeers

Athos hears a murmur through the broken stovepipe while Porthos and Aramis throw dice. He calls them over. The cardinal sits above with Milady. A ship with an English crew waits at the mouth of the Charente. She is to sail at once for London and speak to Buckingham as a frank negotiator. She must tell him that the first step he takes will ruin the queen. The proofs are the Constable's ball, the Louvre night, Amiens, Montague in the Bastille, and Madame de Chevreuse's letter left in his lodging.

If the duke persists, Richelieu speaks of events that change states: the knife in the Rue de la Feronnerie. He wants a handsome, clever woman with a grudge who can put a knife in a fanatic's hand. Milady asks for a signed order that ratifies whatever she does for France. He withholds it until the woman and the fanatic are found. She says both are found, then names her own enemies. Madame Bonacieux is no longer at Nantes. The queen has sent her to a convent. A worse enemy is her lover, D'Artagnan.

The cardinal wants proof of a link to Buckingham, then the Bastille. He says that once inside there is no afterward, and he begins to write. Athos pulls his friends away, leaves a scout story for the host and the esquire, and takes the road to camp with pistols primed.