Work record

Ten Years Later

Name: Ten Years Later
Author: Alexandre Dumas

Alexandre Dumas

1848 · 19th Century · Novel · French

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Abstract

Written: 1848 (serialized 1847-1850)
Setting: 1661; Paris, Blois, Le Havre, Calais, the Bastille and Fontainebleau
Author: Alexandre Dumas; trans. anonymous (19th-century English version)
Country: France
Language: French
Genre: Historical adventure novel
Form: Prose novel; chapters I-LXV of this text (76-140 of the complete Vicomte de Bragelonne), second of four Project Gutenberg volumes
Recommended: Grades 9–12

Background. The middle section of Dumas and Maquet's last musketeer novel follows the first months of Louis XIV's own reign, when royal marriages and summer festivals filled the court calendar.

Plot. D'Artagnan wins his captaincy as Fouquet keeps Belle-Isle by giving it away. Henrietta of England arrives to wed Monsieur, trailing Buckingham and Guiche as admirers, and Raoul calms a near-battle at the coast. Louis postpones Raoul's marriage to Louise. At Fontainebleau the king's game of pretended gallantry toward one of Madame's maids ends in genuine love for Louise, crowned by the gift of Anne of Austria's bracelets. Behind the fêtes, Aramis gains the Bastille's secrets and the Jesuit generalship, and Colbert steers Fouquet toward ruinous expense.

Structure. Crowded and episodic, the volume braids comic schemes, duels and love scenes with a quieter conspiracy, and relies on overheard words to turn its plot. Settings shift from the Channel coast to the Bastille's towers and the oaks and labyrinth of Fontainebleau's park.

Themes. Desire and its disguises, slander and honour, the dependence of private happiness on a prince's favour, and power gathered in secret.

Content note. Married royals flirt openly and the king's affair is the main plot; there are duels and a suggested poisoning, but nothing explicit.

Main characters

D'Artagnan: Newly made captain, ironic observer of the court
Raoul: Peacemaker at Le Havre whose marriage the king delays
Louise de la Vallière: Maid of honour who confesses her love for the king
Louis XIV: Young monarch whose feigned courtship turns real
Madame (Henrietta of England): Coquettish bride of Monsieur and the king's first flirtation
Comte de Guiche: Courtier secretly devoted to Madame
Aramis: Bishop who becomes General of the Jesuits
Fouquet: Superintendent baited into the fête at Vaux

Summary

Ten Years Later is the second of Project Gutenberg's four volumes of The Vicomte de Bragelonne, numbered here as Chapters I-LXV (chapters 76-140 of the whole novel). It begins where the first volume stopped: d'Artagnan, spurs bloody from the ride from Brittany, reaches the Louvre an hour after Fouquet has made the king a present of Belle-Isle. His report is useless, but Louis rewards his zeal with the captaincy of the musketeers that he has waited thirty years to hold. From there the book becomes a court novel set in 1661. Henrietta of England, sister of Charles II, crosses from England to marry Monsieur, the king's brother. At Le Havre her two admirers, the Duke of Buckingham and the Comte de Guiche, nearly bring the English and French escorts to blows, and Raoul's tact keeps the peace. In Paris Monsieur grows jealous, first of Buckingham, whom Anne of Austria persuades to go home, then of Guiche. The spiteful De Wardes slanders d'Artagnan and Raoul and is humiliated by d'Artagnan and Athos; he and Buckingham later fight on the sands at Calais until the tide nearly drowns them. Raoul obtains his father's consent to marry Louise de la Vallière, now a maid of honour to Madame, but the king, asked for his own consent, declares her neither rich nor pretty enough and postpones the match. At Fontainebleau the court bathes, hunts butterflies and dances the Ballet of the Seasons. The king and Madame flirt so openly that, to quiet gossip, they agree he will pretend to court one of her maids. Under the royal oak Louise confesses to her friends that she could love no one but the king, not knowing he is listening. The pretence becomes real: after an outburst of royal pride, a night visit through Malicorne's contrivance, and a storm in which Louis shelters her under a tree, the king's passion for Louise is plain to everyone except Raoul. Beneath the courtship runs the political plot. Colbert manages the fêtes and baits Fouquet into offering the king a fête at Vaux that will cost millions. Madame de Bellière sells her plate to keep Fouquet solvent. Aramis pays the debts of Baisemeaux, governor of the Bastille, and visits a young prisoner in the tower called la Bertaudière; at an inn he attends the deathbed of the General of the Jesuits and becomes his successor. A lost letter from Fouquet to Louise makes Aramis suspect betrayal. The volume ends at Anne of Austria's lottery, where Louis gives the prize bracelets to Louise before the whole court. The comedy is real, but so is the cost: every alliance is now hostage to the king's desire.

Virtues in this work

Faith: Raoul keeps his promise to Louise and trusts the king's word, a fidelity the volume honours and puts at risk.
Prudence: Raoul's mediation at Le Havre and d'Artagnan's handling of De Wardes avoid bloodshed where pride invited it.
Temperance: The volume shows what happens when appetite rules a court, from Monsieur's jealousy to the king's passion.

Plot or Argument

A captain at last (Ch. I)
D'Artagnan's news of Belle-Isle has been forestalled by Fouquet's gift, but Louis makes him captain of the musketeers and keeps him close.
Blois and the maids of honour (Ch. II-VI)
Gaston d'Orléans dies at Blois. Montalais and her suitor Malicorne, with the idle Manicamp, scheme to win places at court, and Louise is appointed maid of honour to the new Madame.
Le Havre and the English escort (Ch. VII-XIII)
Guiche falls in love with Madame's portrait and then with Madame; Buckingham, who adores her, quarrels with the French at the tents on the shore. Raoul mediates and wins Buckingham's friendship.
Consent refused (Ch. XIV-XX)
After the wedding, Louise gives Raoul her hand in promise; Athos consents, but the king defers the marriage. Anne of Austria sends Buckingham home, and d'Artagnan and Athos humble De Wardes for his slanders.
Bastille, plate and the beach at Calais (Ch. XXI-XXIX)
Aramis buys his way into the confidence of Baisemeaux and the Bastille registers. Madame de Bellière gives Fouquet her plate as a 'dowry'. Buckingham and De Wardes duel in the rising tide.
Fontainebleau (Ch. XXX-XLV)
Monsieur's jealousy, the king's mediation and growing attraction to Madame, the bath and the butterfly-chase, the Ballet of the Seasons, Louise's confession under the royal oak, and Madame's discovery of Guiche's love.
Jesuits and the king's secret (Ch. XLVI-LX)
Colbert's trap over the fête at Vaux; Saint-Aignan's night spying; the death of the Jesuit General at the Beau Paon and Aramis's succession; the pastoral tale that angers Louis; the first avowal between Louis and Louise.
Storm, letter and lottery (Ch. LXI-LXV)
Louis shelters Louise in the storm while Aramis and Fouquet watch; Fouquet's letter to Louise goes astray through his servant Toby; Anne of Austria's lottery ends with the bracelets on Louise's arm.

Characters

D'Artagnan, captain of the musketeers
Newly promoted, the king's trusted officer; he watches the court with a soldier's irony and defends Raoul against De Wardes.
Raoul, Vicomte de Bragelonne, Athos's son
Brave, courteous and trusting; the peacemaker at Le Havre, whose engagement to Louise is suspended by royal whim.
Louise de la Vallière, maid of honour
Gentle, devout and candid, unable to hide that she loves the king; Dumas presents her with sympathy and sorrow.
Louis XIV, king
Twenty-three, proud and quick to anger, moving from a dangerous flirtation with his sister-in-law to passion for her maid.
Henrietta of England (Madame), wife of Monsieur
Witty, charming and restless; she plays with the hearts of Buckingham, Guiche and the king and is wounded when the king turns to Louise.
Philippe, Duc d'Orléans (Monsieur), the king's brother
Vain and jealous, managed by the malicious Chevalier de Lorraine.
Comte de Guiche, Raoul's friend
Hopelessly in love with Madame; his confessions to Raoul are overheard by Madame herself.
Duke of Buckingham, English nobleman
Son of the Buckingham of The Three Musketeers, devoted to Madame, sent home by Anne of Austria.
De Wardes, courtier
Son of d'Artagnan's old enemy, a slanderer and duellist.
Aramis, Bishop of Vannes
Fouquet's counsellor, who gains a secret foothold in the Bastille and becomes General of the Jesuits.
Fouquet, superintendent of finance
Generous and imprudent; trapped into an expensive fête at Vaux and drawn toward Louise.
Colbert, intendant
Patient enemy of Fouquet who organizes the Fontainebleau fêtes.
Montalais and Malicorne, schemers
A clever maid of honour and her ambitious suitor who trade in places, keys and secrets.
Anne of Austria, queen-mother
Ageing and unwell, still shrewd; dismisses Buckingham and stages the lottery.

Lessons

A pretence that becomes a passion
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- Why do Louis and Madame agree on the pretence in the butterfly-chase chapters, and what does each hope to gain?
- At what moment does the pretence stop being a pretence?
- What does Madame's reaction at the lottery show about the cost of the game she began?
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Context

The action covers 1661, the first year of Louis XIV's personal rule. Henrietta of England married Philippe d'Orléans on 31 March 1661; Buckingham's infatuation with her and his recall are historical, as are the summer at Fontainebleau, the Ballet des Saisons in which the king danced, and the beginning of Louise de la Vallière's relationship with Louis that summer. Dumas also bends chronology: he places Gaston d'Orléans's death at the opening of this volume, though Gaston died in February 1660, and a Gutenberg footnote corrects another of his dates. The Jesuit generalship plot, the Bastille prisoner and most dialogue are fiction.

Composition

Written with Auguste Maquet and serialized in Le Siècle (1847-1850) as part of Le Vicomte de Bragelonne. The anonymous English translation used by Project Gutenberg divides the novel into four parts; this one is the second, and the translator rewrote some court verses for their flavour rather than their sense.

Reception

The Fontainebleau chapters were admired for their vivacity and their picture of the young king and Madame, but English publishers often cut or split them, and the volume has been less read than The Man in the Iron Mask. Its account of Louise de la Vallière shaped the popular image of her as the one mistress who loved Louis for himself.

Love Desire Power / Politics Friendship Honor Shame Marriage Ambition

Comparisons

The Vicomte de Bragelonne
The first Gutenberg volume ends with Fouquet's gift of Belle-Isle; this one opens with d'Artagnan's wasted ride, so Fouquet's victory and d'Artagnan's captaincy arrive in the same hour.
Louise de la Vallière
The following volume carries Louise's affair with the king into public scandal and sends Raoul toward his discovery of it; the bracelets of the lottery are its starting point.
The Three Musketeers
Buckingham's son loves an English princess married into the French royal house, as his father loved Anne of Austria; Anne herself, now old, sends him away with memories of the earlier passion.
Bérénice
A long-told story holds that Henrietta of England set Racine and Corneille the same subject in 1670; Racine's emperor gives up the woman he loves for duty, the renunciation Dumas's young Louis declines to make.

Quotes

“I am your friend; whatever you would wish me to do, I will do”

— Alexandre Dumas, Ten Years Later, Chapter III, trans. Anonymous 19th-century translation.Quote card

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“a woman who has truly loved is always young, and that the bloom of the girl of twenty years ever lies concealed in some secret cloister of the heart”

— Alexandre Dumas, Ten Years Later, Chapter XVII, trans. Anonymous 19th-century translation.Quote card

The Ambassadors, Full Text
that was one of the glories of literature The glory was happily unobjectionable and the little charges were candid for herself she had travelled that road and she merely waited on their innocence But she referred in due time to their absent friend whom it was clear they should have to give up He either won t have got your note she said or you won t have got his he has had some kind of hindrance and of course for that matter you know a man never writes about coming to a box She spoke as if with her look it might...
The Vicomte de Bragelonne, Chapter XLIII
be kind enough to reckon every year of the Fronde as three years—that makes thirty; now twenty and fifty-two makes seventy-two years The physician tells Mazarin he is dying by counting the strain of civil war as extra years of age.
The Prophet, Full Text
s heart But if in your fear you would seek only love s peace and love s pleasure Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love s threshing-floor Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh but not all of your laughter and weep but not all of your tears Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself Love possesses not nor would it be possessed For love is sufficient unto love When you love you should not say God is in my heart but rather I am in the heart of God A...
A Farewell to Arms, Full Text
Should we play or are you too tired I m not really tired I said that for a joke What handicap will you give me Have you been playing very much None at all You play very well Ten points in a hundred You flatter me Fifteen That would be fine but you will beat me Should we play for a stake You always wished to play for a stake I think we d better All right I will give you eighteen points and we will play for a franc a point He played a lovely game of billiards and with the handicap I was only four ahead at fifty Co...
Ode on a Grecian Urn, Source
Ode on a Grecian Urn ODE ON A GRECIAN URN Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness Thou foster-child of silence and slow time Sylvan historian who canst thus express A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape Of deities or mortals or of both In Tempe or the dales of Arcady What men or gods are these What maidens loth What mad pursuit What struggle to escape What pipes and timbrels What wild ecstasy Heard melodies are sweet but those unheard Are sweeter therefore ye...

“You have ruined me,” whispered Fouquet, in a low tone, to Aramis. “I have saved you,” replied the latter”

— Alexandre Dumas, Ten Years Later, Chapter XLVI, trans. Anonymous 19th-century translation.Quote card

The World as Will and Representation, Source
deeply into them therefore only by the way and quite out of connection with the principal matter The correction of such passages in that essay will consequently take place of its own accord in the mind of the reader through his acquaintance with the present work But only if we have fully recognised by means of that essay what the principle of sufficient reason is and signifies what its validity extends to and what it does not extend to and that that principle is not before all things and the whole world merely i...
Faust, Part One, Full Text
have an atrocious effect Eckermann The rhythm said Goethe is an unconscious result of the poetic mood If one should stop to consider it mechanically when about to write a poem one would become bewildered and accomplish nothing of real poetical value Ibid All that is poetic in character should be rythmically treated Such is my conviction and if even a sort of poetic prose should be gradually introduced it would only show that the distinction between prose and poetry had been completely lost sight of Goethe to Sch...
Notes on the State of Virginia, Selected Letters, and The Jefferson Bible, Summary
Jefferson's selected writings show the range and tensions of the revolutionary Enlightenment in America. Notes on the State of Virginia began as answers to questions from a French diplomat, but it became Jefferson's most sustained book: a survey of Virginia's geography, natural history, laws, economy, population, slavery, Indigenous peoples, education, religion, and politics. It contains arguments for religious liberty, republican education, agrarian citizenship, and scientific curiosity, while Query XIV sets Je...
The Early Christian Creeds, Second Chapter. The Oecumenical Creeds.
Fidei Catholicae Fortunati The oldest commentary on the Athanasian Creed published from a MS in the Ambrosian Library at Milan by Muratori in the second vol of his Anecdota p and better in an Appendix to Waterland's treatise see below But the authorship of Ven Fort is a mere conjecture of Muratori from the name Fortunatus and is denied by modern critics Dav Pareus Ref Symbolum Athanasii breviter declaratum Heidelb J H Heidegger Ref De Symbolo Athanasiano Tur W E Tentzel Luth Judicia eruditorum de Symb Athanasian...
Letters from a Stoic, Introduction
the Letters are the work of Seneca s closing years Both are addressed to Lucilius The essay De Providentia which was also dedicated to him is of doubtful date and may be fixed at any time between the beginning of the exile in Corsica and the period when the Letters were written In spite of the many problems which confront us it may be safely said that the years constitute the period of the Letters We find possible allusions X INTRODUCTION to the Campanian earthquake of a reference to the conflagration at Lyons w...

“If I am not mistaken, that girl will become the strongest passion of the king’s life”

— Alexandre Dumas, Ten Years Later, Chapter LXII, trans. Anonymous 19th-century translation.Quote card

Patriarcha, Full Text
chastised by their Commonwealths The latter in his Book De jure Regni apud Scotos maintains A Liberty of the People to depose their Prince Cardinal Bellarmine and Calume both look asquint this way This desperate Assertion whereby Kings are made subject to the Censures and Deprivations of their Subjects follows as the Authors of it conceive as a necessary Consequence of that former Position of the supposed Natural Equality and Freedom of Mankind and Liberty to choose what form of Government it please And though S...
Galen: Selected Works, Book Ii
enough Undue delay of food in a weak stomach proved not to be due to narrowness of pylorus length of stay depends on whether digestion another instance of the characteristically vital process of alteration has taken place or not Erasistratus wrong in attributing digestion merely to the mechanical action of the stomach walls When digestion completed then pylorus opens and allows contents to pass downwards just as os uteri when development of embyro completed Chapter V If attraction and elimination always proceede...
Pierce v. Society of Sisters, Full Text
to require that all children of proper age attend some school that teachers shall be of good moral character and patriotic disposition that certain studies plainly essential to good citizenship must be taught and that nothing be taught which is manifestly inimical to the public welfare The inevitable practical result of enforcing the act under consideration would be destruction of appellees' primary schools and perhaps all other private primary schools for normal children within the state of Oregon Appellees are...
The Story of King Arthur and His Knights, Source
of grace one thousand nine hundred and two I began to write this history of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table and if I am able so to do I shall endeavor with love of that task to finish the same at some other time in another book and to the satisfaction of whosoever may care to read the story thereof Illustration Illustration Contents The Book of King Arthur PART I THE WINNING OF KINGHOOD Chapter First How Sir Kay did Combat in a Great Tournament at London Town and of How He Brake His Sword Likewise...
The Art of War, Introduction
works For all that he adds the preferments I have enjoyed have forced me for my private ends to set my heart upon papal greatness Were it not for this consideration I should love Martin Luther as my second self In the Discorsi Machiavelli bitterly arraigns the Church as having deprived Italians of religion and liberty He utterly condemns Savonarola yet he could love and learn from Dante and might almost have said with Pym The greatest liberty of the Kingdom is Religion Thereby we are freed from spiritual evils a...

“but why desire that which can never, by any possibility, be ours”

— Alexandre Dumas, Ten Years Later, Chapter LXV, trans. Anonymous 19th-century translation.Quote card

Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health, Full Text
was able to orally ingest some nutrition In order to ease feeding and further the recovery surgeons implanted a gastrostomy feeding and hydration tube in Cruzan with the consent of her then husband Subsequent rehabilitative efforts proved unavailing She now lies in a Missouri state hospital in what is commonly referred to as a persistent vegetative state generally a condition in which a person exhibits motor reflexes but evinces no indications of significant cognitive function The State of Missouri is bearing th...
All's Well That Ends Well, Act 2, Scene 1
The King refuses to 'prostitute our past-cure malady / To empirics'; Helena offers her life as forfeit if the cure fails, and the King accepts her as 'Sweet practiser'. A model scene for consent, risk and the credentials of a healer.
Discourses (selection) and Encheiridion, Medical lens
Ancient Stoics described philosophy as a therapy of the passions, and Epictetus repeatedly compares his school to a place of healing and his teaching to a physician's regimen. His claim that disturbance comes from opinions about events, not events themselves, is often cited as an ancient forerunner of cognitive therapy: Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck both named Stoic philosophy, and Epictetus in particular, among their influences. The resemblance is real but partial, since Epictetus's aim is virtue and agreement wi...
All's Well That Ends Well, Lesson: Does all end well?
Does all end well?. The title is a proverb Helena speaks in Act 4, Scene 4, and the King's final couplet says only that all 'yet seems well'. Bertram's promise to love Helena comes with an 'If', and the epilogue asks the audience to supply the approval the ending lacks. Students should practise reading an ending that knows its own uncertainty.
Confessions, Book I
Thee since Thou fillest them or dost Thou fill them and yet overflow since they do not contain Thee And whither when the heaven and the earth are filled pourest Thou forth the remainder of Thyself or hast Thou no need that aught contain Thee who containest all things since what Thou fillest Thou fillest by containing it for the vessels which Thou fillest uphold Thee not since though they were broken Thou wert not poured out And when Thou art poured out on us Thou art not cast down but Thou upliftest us Thou art...

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

D'Artagnan's arrival at the Louvre in Chapter I and the two very different rewards Fouquet and he receive in the same hour.
Raoul between the English and French tents at Le Havre (Chapters X-XII).
The king's audience with Athos and Raoul in Chapter XVIII, and the reasons Louis gives for delaying the marriage.
Overheard conversations at Fontainebleau: the royal oak, the chestnut tree, the ladder and the labyrinth.
Aramis's movements behind the festivals: the Bastille, the Beau Paon and the lost letter.

Key terms and names

Captain of the musketeers: Command of the king's musketeers, the post d'Artagnan finally receives in Chapter I.
Monsieur and Madame: Court titles of the king's brother Philippe, Duc d'Orléans, and his wife Henrietta of England.
Maid of honour: A young noblewoman attending a princess; Louise, Montalais and Tonnay-Charente serve Madame.
La Bertaudière: A tower of the Bastille where Aramis visits prisoners under the governor Baisemeaux.
General of the Jesuits: Head of the Society of Jesus; in Dumas's fiction a hidden power whose office passes secretly to Aramis.
Ballet of the Seasons: The court ballet at Fontainebleau in which the king dances Spring.

Seminar Questions

Comprehension Why is d'Artagnan's news about Belle-Isle no longer useful when he reaches the king, and what reward does he receive anyway?
Comprehension What does Louise say under the royal oak, and who overhears her?
Interpretation Why does the king refuse to approve Raoul's marriage in Chapter XVIII? Are his stated reasons his real ones?
Interpretation How does Dumas use overheard conversations to move the plot at Fontainebleau? What does eavesdropping reveal about the court?
Interpretation How do Aramis's secret gains in this volume change the balance between Fouquet and Colbert?
Big Question When a ruler's desires decide other people's marriages and fortunes, what can a faithful subject or friend still do? Use Raoul, d'Artagnan and Louise to answer.

Faith Connections

Proverbs 6:27-28 (Scripture)
'Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?' Louis and Madame, both married, agree to play at a false courtship to hide a real flirtation, and the fire spreads to Louise, Raoul and the whole court.
Proverbs 26:20-22 (Scripture)
Where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth. De Wardes, the Chevalier de Lorraine and Tonnay-Charente keep the court's quarrels burning with words, and Dumas shows the damage a whisper can do.
Psalm 146:3 (Scripture)
Raoul's happiness hangs on the king's consent, and the king's interest has already turned elsewhere; the psalm's warning about trusting princes fits his position exactly.
Racine, Bérénice (Great Conversation)
Racine's tragedy, traditionally linked to Henrietta of England, shows a ruler who renounces a beloved for the sake of duty, a useful counterweight to Louis's choices in this volume.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: In the first year of his personal rule Louis XIV holds every favour at court; love, marriage, friendship and fortune therefore depend on his wishes; his flirtation with Madame and turn to Louise, begun as a game, reorder the whole court; meanwhile Aramis and Colbert use the festivals to build hidden power; so the volume shows a world where private faithfulness, like Raoul's, is admirable but exposed.

Rhetorical device: eavesdropping as plot engine. Under the royal oak in Chapter XLI Louise confesses that she could love only the king, and Louis and Saint-Aignan hear it from the bushes; a few chapters later Madame hides by a chestnut tree to overhear Guiche and Raoul.

Debate: Resolved: that the king, not Louise, bears chief responsibility for what happens to Raoul's engagement.

Memory Work

I am your friend; whatever you would wish me to do, I will do
Chapter III, trans. Anonymous 19th-century translation. Montalais's plain promise to Louise at Blois, made before court life tests every promise in the book.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Compare Louise de la Vallière and Madame as Dumas portrays them at Fontainebleau. Argue which woman has more freedom to choose, and what each choice costs.

Comparison with The Vicomte de Bragelonne: In the first volume d'Artagnan serves the king by riding to Belle-Isle; in this one he serves by watching a court. Compare the kinds of loyalty each volume asks of him.

Medical Lens

Two short episodes touch medicine. At the inn of the Beau Paon a dying Franciscan, secretly the General of the Jesuits, summons the local physician Grisart; after the death Aramis tells Grisart to empty the glass of 'what the grand council desired you to put in', implying the physician acted as an instrument of the order. Anne of Austria's suffering and her physician's opinions are mentioned as she declines. Dumas gives no diagnosis, and any identification of the queen-mother's illness belongs to history, not to this text.

Physicians Doctors Pharmacology Poisons Medical Ethics Death Dying

Ch. LI-LIII, 'What Actually Occurred at the Inn Called the Beau Paon', 'A Jesuit of the Eleventh Year', 'The State Secret'
The feverish Franciscan calls for a physician and a confessor; Grisart attends him and prepares a cordial; after his death Aramis's words reveal that the physician had been directed to add something to the glass.
Physicians Doctors Pharmacology Poisons Medical Ethics Death Dying
Ch. LXIV, 'Madame's Four Chances'
Anne of Austria, suffering acutely and losing her looks, finds her physician's opinions less painful than the neglect of courtiers.
Physicians Doctors

Creative Prompts

Classroom
Make a map of the gardens of Fontainebleau as Dumas uses them: the royal oak, the chestnut tree, the labyrinth and the bathing place at Vulaines, with who overhears whom at each spot.
Essay
Louise says of the bracelets, 'why desire that which can never, by any possibility, be ours?' Argue whether the king's gift honours her or endangers her, using the reactions of Madame, Montalais and Anne of Austria.
Dialogue
Write the conversation Raoul and Athos might have on the road back from the king, after Louis has refused to give his consent.
Fiction
Retell the duel on the beach at Calais from the point of view of the fisherman who pulls De Wardes out of the tide.