It was not till the publication of "The Three Musketeers," in
1844, that the amazing gifts of Dumas were fully recognised.
From 1844 till 1850, the literary output of novels, plays, and
historical memoirs was enormous, and so great was the demand
for Dumas' work that he made no attempt to supply his
customers single-handed, but engaged a host of assistants, and
was content to revise and amend--or in some cases only to
sign--their productions. "The Three Musketeers" was followed
by its sequel, "Twenty Years After," in 1845, and the story
was continued still further in the "Vicomte de Bragelonne."
The "Valois" series of novels, "Monte Cristo," and the
"Memoirs of a Physician," were all published before 1850, in
addition to many dramatised versions of stories.
_I.--The Musketeer's Apprenticeship_
D'Artagnan was without acquaintances in Paris, and now on the very day
of his arrival he was committed to fight with three of the most
distinguished of the king's musketeers.
Coming from Gascony, a youth with all the pride and ambition of his
race, D'Artagnan had brought no money; with him, but only a letter of
introduction from his father to M. de Treville, captain of the
musketeers. But he had been taught that by courage alone could a man now
make his way to fortune, and that he was to bear nothing, save from the
cardinal--the great Cardinal Richelieu, or from the king--Louis XIII.
It was immediately after his interview with M. de Treville that
D'Artagnan, well trained at home as a swordsman, quarrelled with the
three musketeers.
First, on the palace stairs, he ran violently into Athos, who was
suffering from a wounded shoulder.
"Excuse me," said D'Artagnan. "Excuse me, but I am in a hurry."
"You are in a hurry?" said the musketeer, pale as a sheet. "Under that
pretence, you run against me; you say 'Excuse me!' and you think that
sufficient. You are not polite; it is easy to see that you are from the
country."
D'Artagnan had already passed on, but this remark made him stop short.
"However far I may come it is not you, monsieur, who can give me a
lesson in manners, I warn you."
"Perhaps," said Athos, "you are in a hurry now, but you can find me
without running after me. Do you understand me."
"Where, and when?" said D'Artagnan.
"Near the Carmes-Deschaux at noon," replied Athos. "And please do not
keep me waiting, for at a quarter past twelve I will cut off your ears
if you run."
"Good!" cried D'Artagnan. "I will be there at ten minutes to twelve."
At the street gate Porthos was talking with the soldiers on guard.
Between the two there was just room for a man to pass, and D'Artagnan
hurried on, only to find himself enveloped in the long velvet cloak of
Porthos, which the wind had blown out.
"The fellow must be mad," said Porthos, "to run against people in this
manner! Do you always forget your eyes when you happen to be in a
hurry?"
"No," replied D'Artagnan, who, in extricating himself from the cloak,
had observed that the handsome cloth of gold coat worn by Porthos was
only gold in front and plain buff at the back, "no, and thanks to my
eyes, I can see what others cannot see."
"Monsieur," said Porthos angrily, "you stand a chance of getting
chastised if you run against musketeers in this fashion. I shall look
for you, at one o'clock behind the Luxembourg."
"Very well, at one o'clock then," replied D'Artagnan, turning into the
street.
A few minutes later D'Artagnan annoyed Aramis, the third musketeer, who
was chatting with some gentleman of the king's musketeers. As D'Artagnan
came up Aramis accidentally dropped an embroidered pocket-handkerchief
and covered it at once with his foot to prevent observation. D'Artagnan,
conscious of a certain want of politeness in his treatment of Athos and
Porthos, and determined to be more obliging in future, stooped and
picked up the handkerchief--much to the vexation of Aramis, who denied
all claim to the delicate piece of cambric.
D'Artagnan not taking the rebukes of Aramis in good part, they fixed two
o'clock as the hour of meeting.
The two young men bowed and separated, Aramis going up the street which
led to the Luxembourg, whilst D'Artagnan, finding that it was near noon,
took the road to the Carmes-Deschaux, saying to himself, "Decidedly I
can't draw back; but at least if I am killed, I shall be killed by a
musketeer."
Knowing nobody in Paris, D'Artagnan went to his appointment without a
second.
It was just striking twelve when he arrived on the ground, and Athos,
still suffering from his old wound on the shoulder, was already waiting
for his adversary.
Athos explained with all politeness that his seconds had not yet
arrived.
"If you are in great haste, monsieur," said D'Artagnan, "and if it be
your will to despatch me at once, do not inconvenience yourself. I am
ready. But if you would wait three days till your shoulder is healed, I
have a miraculous balsam given me by my mother, and I am sure this
balsam will cure your wound. At the end of three days it would still do
me a great honour to be your man."
"That is well said," said Athos, "and it pleases me. Thus spoke the
gallant knights of Charlemagne. Monsieur, I love men of your stamp, and
I can tell that if we don't kill each other, I shall enjoy your society.
But here comes my seconds."
"What!" cried D'Artagnan as Porthos and Aramis appeared. "Are these
gentlemen your seconds?"
"Yes," replied Athos. "Are you not aware that we are never seen one
without the others, and that we are called the three inseparables?"
"What does this mean?" said Porthos, who had now come up and stood
astonished.
"This is the gentleman I am to fight with," said Athos, pointing to
D'Artagnan and saluting him.
"Why I am also going to fight with him," said Porthos.
"But not before one o'clock," replied D'Artagnan.
"Well, and I also am going to fight with that gentleman," said Aramis.
"But not till two o'clock," said D'Artagnan calmly.
"And now you are all assembled, gentleman, permit me to offer you my
excuses."
At this word "excuses" a cloud passed over the brow of Athos, a haughty
smile curled the lip of Porthos, and a negative sign was the reply of
Aramis.
"You do not understand me, gentleman," said D'Artagnan, throwing up his
head. "I ask to be excused in case I should not be able to discharge my
debt to all three; for M. Athos has the right to kill me first. And now,
gentleman, I repeat, excuse me, but on that account only, and--guard!"
At these words D'Artagnan drew his sword, and at that moment so elated
was he that he would have drawn his sword against all the musketeers in
the kingdom.
Scarcely had the two rapiers sounded on meeting, when a company of the
cardinal's guards appeared on the scene. At that time there was not only
a standing feud between the king's musketeers and the guards of Cardinal
Richelieu, there was also a prohibition against duelling.
"The cardinal's guards! The cardinal's guards!" cried Aramis and Porthos
at the same time. "Sheathe swords, gentlemen! Sheathe swords!" But it
was too late.
Jussac, commander of the guards, had seen the combatants in a position
which could not be mistaken.
"Hullo, musketeers," he called out; "fighting, are you, in spite of the
edicts? Well, duty before everything. Sheathe your swords, please, and
follow us."
"That is quite impossible," said Aramis politely. "The best thing you
can do is to pass on your way."
"We shall charge upon you, then," said Jussac. "if you disobey."
"There are five of them," said Athos, "and we are but three. We shall be
beaten, and must die on the spot, for on my part I will never face my
captain as a conquered man."
Athos, Porthos, and Aramis instantly closed in, and Jussac drew up his
soldiers.
In that short interval D'Artagnan determined on the part he was to take;
it was a decision of life-long importance. He had to choose between the
king and the cardinal, and the choice made, it must be persisted in. He
turned towards Athos and his friends. "Gentlemen," said he, "allow me to
correct your words. You said you were but three, but it appears to me we
are four. I do not wear the uniform, but my heart is that of a
musketeer."
"Withdraw, young man, and save your skin!" cried Jussac.
The three musketeers thought of D'Artagnan's youth, and dreaded his
inexperience.
"Try me, gentlemen," said D'Artagnan, "and I swear to you that I will
never go hence if we are conquered."
Athos pressed the young man's hand, and exclaimed, "Well, then! Athos,
Porthos, Aramis, and D'Artagnan, forward!"
The nine combatants rushed upon each other with fury, and the battle
ended in the utter discomfiture of the cardinal's guards, one of whom
was slain and three badly wounded. The musketeers returned walking arm
in arm. D'Artagnan marched between Athos and Porthos, his heart full of
delight.
"If I am not yet a musketeer," said he to his new friends, "at least, I
have entered upon my apprenticeship, haven't I?"
_II.--The Queen's Diamonds_
The king, always jealous of Richelieu's guards, was extremely pleased
when he heard from M. de Treville of the fight that had taken place. He
gave D'Artagnan a handful of gold, and promised him a place in the ranks
of the musketeers at the first vacancy; in the meantime he was to join a
company of royal guards. From this time the life of the four young men
became common, for D'Artagnan fell quite easily into the habits of his
three friends.
Athos, who was scarcely thirty years old, was of great personal beauty
and intelligence of mind. He never spoke of women, he never laughed,
rarely smiled, and his reserved and silent habits seemed to make him a
much older man.
Porthos was exactly the opposite of Athos. He not only talked much, but
he talked loudly, not caring whether anyone listened to him. He would
talk about anything except the sciences, alleging that from childhood
dated his inveterate hatred of learning. The physical strength of
Porthos was enormous, and with all the vanity of a child he was a
thoroughly loyal and brave man.
As for Aramis, he always gave out that he intended to take orders in the
Church, and was merely a musketeer for the time being. Aramis revelled
in intrigues and mysteries.
What the real names of his comrades were D'Artagnan had no idea. That
the names they bore had been assumed was all he knew.
The motto of the four was "all for one, one for all." D'Artagnan had
already earned the dislike of Cardinal Richelieu by his part in the
fight with the cardinal's guards; it was not long before his daring gave
greater cause for offence.
The king suspected his wife, Anne of Austria, of being in love with the
Duke of Buckingham, and the cardinal suspected the queen of intriguing
with Buckingham against France. Now, a secret interview had taken place
at the palace between Buckingham and the queen, and the cardinal, who
employed spies everywhere, found out this as he found out everything,
and determined to destroy the queen's reputation, for there was deadly
enmity between Anne of Austria and Richelieu.
Buckingham had received from the queen a set of diamond studs--a present
from the king--as a keepsake; so the cardinal despatched a certain lady,
a woman of rare beauty, known as "Milady," to England, to get hold of
two of these studs.
Then the cardinal, by fostering the royal suspicion, persuaded the king
to give a grand ball whereat the queen should wear the diamond studs. By
this means Louis would be convinced of Buckingham's visit, for the set
of studs would be incomplete.
The queen was in dispair. It was D'Artagnan and the three musketeers
who saved her honour. D'Artagnan loved Madame Bonacieux, a confidential
dressmaker of the queen's; and this woman, devoted to her royal
mistress, gave D'Artagnan a secret note from the queen to Buckingham.
D'Artagnan went at once to M. de Treville, obtained leave of absence for
himself and his friends, and set out for England. It was not a minute
too soon, for the cardinal had already made plans to prevent any such
counter-move, giving orders that no one was to sail from France without
a permit.
Between Paris and Calais, Porthos, Aramis, and Athos were all left
behind, wounded by Richelieu's guards, and D'Artagnan only effected a
passage to Dover by fighting and nearly killing a young noble who held a
permit from the cardinal to leave France.
Once in England, D'Artagnan hastened to find Buckingham. The latter
discovered, to his horror, that Milady had already become possessed
cunningly of two of the precious studs, and D'Artagnan had to wait while
the skill of the first English jeweller made good the loss beyond
detection.
He returned to Paris with the twelve studs in time for the royal ball.
Milady had already given the two she had stolen to the cardinal, who had
passed them on to the king.
"What does this mean, Monsieur le Cardinal?" said the king severely,
when in the middle of the ball he found, to his joy, that the queen was
already wearing twelve diamonds.
"It means, sire," the cardinal replied, with vexation, "that I was
anxious to present her majesty with two studs, but did not dare to offer
them myself."
"I am very grateful," said Anne of Austria, fully alive to the
cardinal's defeat, "only I am afraid these two studs must have cost your
eminence as much as all the others cost his majesty."
The man, D'Artagnan, to whom the queen owed this extraordinary triumph
over her enemy, stood unknown in the crowd that gathered round the
doors. It was only when the queen retired that someone touched him on
the shoulder and bade him follow. He readily obeyed; D'Artagnan waited
in an ante-room of the queen's apartments; he could hear voices within,
and presently a hand and an arm, marvellously white and beautiful, came
through the tapestry.
D'Artagnan felt that this was his reward. He dropped on his knees,
seized the hand, and touched it modestly with his lips. Then the hand
was withdrawn, and in his own a ring was left. The tapestry closed, and
his guide, no other than Bonacieux, reappeared and escorted him hastily
to the corridor.
_III.--The Musketeers at La Rochelle_
The siege of La Rochelle was an important affair, one of the chief
political events of the reign of Louis XIII.
For a time D'Artagnan was separated from his friends, for the musketeers
were escorting the king to the seat of war, and our intrepid Gascon was
with the main army. It was now that D'Artagnan began to realise that he
had attracted, not only the displeasure of the cardinal, but also the
deadly hatred of Milady, the cardinal's secret agent, whose overtures at
friendship, made in the cardinal's interest, he had insulted before
leaving Paris, and whose secret shame he had discovered.
Twice his life was nearly taken by hired assassins, and the third time a
present of wine turned out to be poisoned.
To add to his natural discomfort, Madame Bonacieux had disappeared from
Paris, and probably was in prison.
The arrival of the musketeers restored his spirits, and the four were
again inseparable. One drawback to their intercourse was the fact that
the cardinal and his spies were all over the camp, and that,
consequently, it was difficult to talk confidentially without being
overheard.
In order to secure privacy for a conference, they decided to go and
breakfast in a bastion near the enemy's lines, and wagered with some
officers they would stay there an hour. It was a position of terrible
danger, but the feat was accomplished, and the wild undertaking of the
musketeers was acclaimed with tremendous enthusiasm in the French camp.
The noise reached the cardinal's ears, and he inquired its meaning.
"Monseigneur," said the officer, "three musketeers and a guard laid a
wager that they would go and breakfast in the Bastion St. Gervais, and
they breakfasted and held it for two hours against the enemy, killing I
don't know how many Rochellais."
"Did you inquire the names of those three musketeers?"
"Yes, monseigneur. MM. Athos, Porthos, and Aramis."
"Still the three braves!" muttered the cardinal. "And the guard?"
"M. D'Artagnan!"
"Still my reckless young friend! I must have these four men as my own."
That same night the cardinal spoke to M. de Treville of the episode of
the bastion, and gave permission for D'Artagnan to become a musketeer,
"for such men should be in the same company," he said.
One night during the siege, the three musketeers, seeking D'Artagnan,
were met in a country lane by the cardinal, travelling, as he often did,
with a single attendant. Athos recognised him, and the cardinal bade the
three men escort him to a lonely inn. At the door they all alighted. The
landlord of the inn received the cardinal, for he had been expecting an
officer to visit a lady who was within. The three musketeers were
accommodated in a large room on the ground floor, and the cardinal
passed up the staircase as a man who knew his road. Porthos and Aramis
sat down at the table to dice, while Athos walked up and down the room
in a thoughtful mood. To his astonishment, Athos found that, the
stovepipe being broken, he could hear all that was passing in the room
above.
"Listen, Milady," the cardinal was saying, "this affair is of utmost
importance. A small vessel is waiting for you at the mouth of the river.
You will go on board to-night and set sail to-morrow morning for
England. Half an hour after I have gone, you will leave here. When you
reach England, you will seek the Duke of Buckingham, explain to him that
I have proofs of his secret interviews with the queen, and tell him that
if England moves in support of the besieged in La Rochelle, I will at
once ruin the queen."
"But what if he persists in spite of this in making war?" said Milady.
"If he persists? Why, then he must be got rid of. Some woman doubtless
exists, handsome, young, and clever, who has a grievance against the
duke; and some fanatic can be found to be her instrument."
"The woman exists, and the fanatic will be found," returned Milady. "And
now, will monseigneur permit me to speak of my enemies, as we have
spoken of yours?"
"Your enemies? Who are they?" asked Richelieu.
"First, there is a meddlesome little woman called Bonacieux. She was in
prison at Nantes, but has been conveyed to a convent by an order which
the queen obtained from the king. Will your eminence find out where that
convent is?"
"I don't object to that."
"Then I have a much more dangerous enemy than the little Bonacieux, and
that is her lover, the wretch D'Artagnan. I will get you a thousand
proofs that he has conspired with Buckingham."
"Very well; get me proof, and I will send him to the Bastille."
For a few seconds there was silence while the cardinal was writing a
note.
Athos at once got up and told his companions he would go out to see if
the road was safe, and left the house.
The cardinal gave his final instructions to Milady, and departed with
Porthos and Aramis. No sooner had they turned an angle of the road than
Athos re-entered the inn, marched boldly upstairs, and before he had
been seen, had bolted the door.
Milady turned round, and became exceedingly white.
"The Count de la Fère!" she said.
"Yes, Milady, the Count de la Fère in person. You believed him dead, did
you not, as I believed you to be?"
"What do you want? Why do you come here?" said Milady in a hollow voice.
"I have followed your actions," said Athos sternly. "It was you who had
Madame Bonacieux carried off; it was you who sent assassins after
D'Artagnan, and poisoned his wine. Only to-night you have agreed to
assassinate the Duke of Buckingham, and expect D'Artagnan to be slain in
return. Now, I care nothing about the Duke of Buckingham; he is an
Englishman, but D'Artagnan is my friend."
"M. D'Artagnan insulted me," said Milady.
"Is it possible to insult you?" said Athos. He drew out a pistol and
cocked it. "Madame, you will instantly deliver to me the paper you have
received from the cardinal; or, upon my soul, I will blow out your
brains."
Athos slowly raised his pistol until the weapon almost touched the
woman's forehead. Milady knew too well that with this terrible man death
would certainly come unless she yielded. She drew the paper out of her
bosom and handed it to Athos. "Take it," she said, "and be accursed."
Athos returned the pistol to his belt, unfolded the paper, and read:
It is by my order, and for the good of the state, that the
bearer of this has done what he has done.
Dec. 3rd, 1627.