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Alexandre Dumas
D'Artagnan walks alone to the Carmes Deschaux, ready to fight Athos and then the other two, and ready to apologise without looking small. Athos is already there, wounded, hat in hand. He will fight left-handed and regrets not saying so sooner. D'Artagnan offers his mother's balsam and three days' delay. Athos likes the courtesy and refuses it: they live in the times of the cardinal, and a secret duel would be stopped. Porthos and Aramis arrive as seconds and, it turns out, as the next two men on D'Artagnan's list. When he offers apologies, they bristle until he explains he only means Athos may kill him before he can pay the later bills. They draw in the noon heat, still trading compliments, until Jussac's Guards turn the convent corner.
The Guards order them to sheathe and follow. Athos will not go back to Tréville as a conquered man. Five against three looks like yesterday's beating again. D'Artagnan has one second to choose the king or the cardinal. He says they are four, not three. He has no uniform, but he has the spirit. Jussac tells the boy to save his skin. D'Artagnan does not move. Athos takes his name and calls Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and D'Artagnan forward.
They fight with fury and a kind of method. D'Artagnan, fast and unorthodox, exhausts Jussac and runs him through. A look from Athos is enough: he disarms Cahusac so the wounded Musketeer can finish his own quarrel. Aramis kills one man and forces another to ask for mercy. Bicarat, a Gascon like D'Artagnan, will not yield until his commander orders it; then he snaps his sword across his knee and whistles a cardinalist air. The four salute him, carry the wounded under the porch, and walk arm in arm to Tréville's hôtel, gathering Musketeers as they go. Between Athos and Porthos, D'Artagnan asks whether, if he is not yet a Musketeer, he has at least entered his apprenticeship.
The group you join in a crisis is the one that will own your name afterward. At the Carmes Deschaux, when Jussac's Guards order the Musketeers to sheathe and follow, D'Artagnan has one second to choose the king or the cardinal, says they are four rather than three, and does not move when Jussac tells him to save his skin.
Before you stand with anyone in public, name what that stand will cost you if the other side writes the report.
Tréville scolds the Musketeers in public and congratulates them in private, then hurries to the Louvre. The king is already shut in with the cardinal and will not receive him. That evening, at the gaming table, Louis is winning, so he calls the captain over to growl.
What this chapter proves — the pattern beneath the scene
In this chapter, the lesson is Choosing Your Company — The First Fight Was Not the One You Planned.
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.
Choosing Your Company
At the Carmes-Deschaux d'Artagnan is ready to fight Athos, then Porthos, then Aramis, and ready to apologise without looking small. Cardinal's guards arrive first. The four turn as one company. The boy who came to kill three Musketeers has entered his apprenticeship.
Key Insight
Company is proven when a third party arrives and you have to decide whose side you are on before you have finished your private quarrel.
Chapter 05
D’Artagnan was acquainted with nobody in Paris. He went therefore to his appointment with Athos without a second, determined to be satisfied with those his adversary should choose. Besides, his intention was formed to make the brave Musketeer all suitable apologies, but without meanness or weakness, fearing that might result from this duel which generally results from an affair of this kind, when a young and vigorous man fights with an adversary who is wounded and weakened—if conquered, he doubles the triumph of his antagonist; if a conqueror, he is accused of foul play and want of courage. Now, we…
Public-domain chapter text, formatted for reading.
Replay the Carmes scene on paper. On the left, write Athos's count (three, one wounded) and Jussac's order to sheathe. On the right, write D'Artagnan's two sentences: we are four, and I have the spirit. Then write the stand you would take in a current group if a similar order arrived this week.
When did you last become 'the fourth' in a group that had not asked you to join, and what did that second cost you afterward?
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Other theme-by-theme analyses from this book.
The Cassock He Asked For
Follow the Gascon who wants a cassock and is offered a commission.
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.
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