Officer — The Three Musketeers

The cardinal waits for news from England and gets only threats. La Rochelle is invested. The dyke keeps ships out. The siege may still last a long time. The mayor has hanged mutineers who wanted to surrender. The last spy taken in the lines carries a letter: if Buckingham's succor does not come in fifteen days, the city will be dead of hunger. Assault is always voted down. The town looks impregnable, and a sack would look too much like St. Bartholomew. The generals say only famine will open it. Richelieu still fears his emissary. Has Milady betrayed him, or is she dead? He knows she does not sit still unless something large holds her. He presses the dyke and has notes thrown over the walls: the leaders have corn; women, children, and old men die first. Private talks with the royal army begin. Then a Rochellais who has come from Portsmouth says a fleet will sail in eight days, and that England, the Empire, and Spain will invade. The notes lose their force. The city waits for the promised succor. The cardinal has to look across the sea again.

One day, low in mind and with no English news, he rides the beach with Cahusac and La Houdinière. Behind a hedge he finds seven men and empty bottles. Four Musketeers have put down cards and dice to hear a letter. Grimaud cries Officer. Athos rises on his elbow, then they all stand and salute. The cardinal is furious. Are they keeping guard? Do they think themselves superior officers? Athos says that off duty they drink and play, and they are certainly officers to their lackeys. He thanks his Eminence for uniting them and pushes D'Artagnan forward to stammer gratitude. The cardinal will not be turned. Discipline is the same for a privileged corps. They look like four conspirators. Athos agrees they conspire, against the Rochellais. Then the cardinal asks for the letter Aramis hid. Aramis says it is a woman's letter. The cardinal jokes that a confessor may see such letters, and he has taken orders. Athos answers, at the risk of his head, that it is signed neither Marion de Lorme nor Madame d'Aiguillon. The cardinal goes pale. He turns as if to order Cahusac. Athos steps toward the piled muskets. Seven against three. Richelieu's anger fades into a smile. He recalls the night they escorted him to the Red Dovecot, tells them to finish their bottles and their letter, and rides away. They all see the rage under the farewell. Only Athos smiles.

Would Aramis have given up the letter? He would have held it out with one hand and run the cardinal through with the other. Athos says that is why he stepped between them. Whose air, ocean, and sand are these? Whose letter? Being in love is not conspiring. Aramis reads Marie Michon's note from the start. Constance is at the Carmelite convent at Béthune, resigned and hungry for a letter from her intended. The family hopes to arrange her return. D'Artagnan learns she lives. Athos says Béthune is on the frontier of Artois and Flanders; after the siege they can ride there. Porthos reports a hanged spy who said the Rochellais are down to the leather of their shoes. Athos will not keep the paper. D'Artagnan fears even ashes can be read. Grimaud, as punishment for speaking, must eat the letter and then drink a glass of Bordeaux. Athos says that unless the cardinal rips Grimaud up, they may be easy about the note. On the beach, his Eminence rides on and murmurs that these four men must positively be his.