Prestige · $2.99/month
Chapter audio, theme analysis, and downloads
Alexandre Dumas
Charles I learns the duke is dead and tries to hide the news from La Rochelle, closing the ports of England. He gives the order at two o'clock, five hours late. Two ships have already gone. One carries Milady, who takes the black flag on the admiral's mast as proof. In the camp at La Rochelle the French king is bored and asks the cardinal for an escort of twenty Musketeers so he can spend the festival of Saint Louis at Saint-Germain. The cardinal is glad to be rid of him. Monsieur de Tréville, who knows his friends need Paris without knowing why, puts the four on the escort. D'Artagnan, now a Musketeer, can leave the camp with them.
The reason is Madame Bonacieux. If she stays at the Carmelites of Béthune she may meet Milady. Aramis has already written to Marie Michon at Tours. The answer comes with the queen's order: the superior at Béthune is to place the novice in the hands of whoever presents the note. Porthos teases Aramis about a seamstress who calls the queen her sister until Aramis blushes and forbids the subject. They have the paper. They are still at the wrong end of France. The king hunts magpies on the road and the four curse every halt. They pass through Paris on the night of the twenty-third. The first four-day furloughs go to them; Athos gets six days and two extra nights, post-dated. D'Artagnan says the rest should stay. He and Planchet can burn a few horses, show the queen's letter, and bring Madame Bonacieux back to Paris. Athos answers that they have diamond money too, and that Béthune is a city where the cardinal has given a woman a rendezvous. If it were four men, D'Artagnan could go alone. It is that woman. They four will go.
On the evening of the twenty-fifth they enter Arras. At the inn of the Golden Harrow, D'Artagnan is dismounting for a glass of wine when a horseman leaves the post yard on a fresh horse, bound for Paris. The wind opens the cloak and lifts the hat. D'Artagnan goes pale and drops the glass. It is the man he calls his evil genius, the one who walks with that woman and who was there the morning Madame Bonacieux was taken. He wants to chase. Aramis stops him: the man rides the other way, on a fresh horse, and they would ruin their own without catching him. Let the man go. Save the woman. A hostler runs out with a paper that fell from the hat. D'Artagnan pays a half-pistole. The paper holds one word in her hand: Armentières. They keep it and fly for Béthune.
The friend who will not let you ride alone is naming a danger you still want to treat as simple. At Paris D'Artagnan says he and Planchet can reach Béthune in two days, and Athos answers that the cardinal's woman waits in that city and that they four will go.
When a rescue starts to look like an easy trip, let the people who fear your enemy spend their horses with you, and keep the living errand ahead of the old chase.
Milady slips the cruisers of both nations and lands at Boulogne without accident. She posts a letter to the cardinal: Buckingham will not set out for France. That same evening she takes the road to the Carmelite convent at Béthune, where she means to wait for orders.
What this chapter proves — the pattern beneath the scene
In this chapter, the lesson is Loyalty When It Costs — Breakfast on a Bastion.
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.
Loyalty When It Costs
Two ships have already left England. The camp in France still waits for news. The four turn toward the woman and the convent. Loyalty after the duke's death is no longer a diamond run. It is a chase that may be too late for the other life they meant to save.
Key Insight
When the first rescue fails, loyalty is whether you still ride for the second person on the list, without pretending the first loss did not happen.
Chapter 60
The first fear of the King of England, Charles I., on learning of the death of the duke, was that such terrible news might discourage the Rochellais; he tried, says Richelieu in his Memoirs, to conceal it from them as long as possible, closing all the ports of his kingdom, and carefully keeping watch that no vessel should sail until the army which Buckingham was getting together had gone, taking upon himself, in default of Buckingham, to superintend the departure. He carried the strictness of this order so far as to detain in England the ambassadors of Denmark, who had…
Public-domain chapter text, formatted for reading.
Set two columns. Left: D'Artagnan's simple plan (two days, a few horses, the queen's letter, Planchet). Right: Athos's count (that woman at Béthune) and Aramis's order at Arras (let the man go; save the woman). Write the loyalty you would keep if the cloaked rider passed your inn tonight.
When have you almost turned around after an old enemy, and who named the person still ahead who needed you more?
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 Cassock He Asked For
Follow the Gascon who wants a cassock and is offered a commission.
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.
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.
