The Three Musketeers

Summary

The Three Musketeers follows a poor young gentleman from Gascony through three years of duels, court intrigue and war under Louis XIII, from 1625 to the fall of La Rochelle in 1628. D'Artagnan, eighteen years old, rides to Paris on a comic yellow pony with fifteen crowns, his father's advice and a letter of introduction to M. de Tréville, captain of the King's Musketeers. At Meung a sneering stranger, later known as Rochefort, insults him and steals the letter, and d'Artagnan glimpses a beautiful blonde Englishwoman the stranger calls Milady. In Paris he manages, in a single morning, to provoke duels with three musketeers, Athos, Porthos and Aramis. When the Cardinal's Guards interrupt the first duel, he fights beside the three against the guards, and the four become inseparable. D'Artagnan lodges with the mercer Bonacieux and falls in love with his young wife Constance, a linen-maid trusted by Queen Anne of Austria. The queen has given twelve diamond studs, a gift from the king, to the Duke of Buckingham; Cardinal Richelieu, learning this, persuades Louis to ask her to wear them at a ball. D'Artagnan and his friends ride for the coast, and the three musketeers drop away one by one, held back by an ambush, a wound and a false charge. D'Artagnan reaches London alone, learns that Milady has cut two studs from the duke's shoulder-knot, and returns with a replaced set just in time. Constance is then abducted. In later chapters d'Artagnan learns that Milady, Lady de Winter, is a secret agent of the Cardinal and the wife Athos believed dead, who had been branded with the fleur-de-lis as a criminal. At the siege of La Rochelle the friends survive assassins and poisoned wine, overhear Richelieu sending Milady to arrange Buckingham's death, take from her a pardon signed by Richelieu, and hold the bastion Saint-Gervais for an hour on a wager while they plan. Imprisoned at Portsmouth by her brother-in-law Lord de Winter, Milady persuades the Puritan officer John Felton that she is a persecuted innocent, and he stabs Buckingham. She escapes to a convent at Béthune and poisons Constance just before the friends arrive. Joined by de Winter and the executioner of Lille, they try and execute her beside the river Lys. Richelieu, shown his own pardon, gives d'Artagnan a lieutenant's commission. Dumas, working with Auguste Maquet and drawing on the Mémoires de M. d'Artagnan of Courtilz de Sandras (1700), published the novel as a serial in Le Siècle from March to July 1844.

Plot or Argument

• From Gascony to the Pré-aux-Clercs (Preface; Chapters I-VI)

  Dumas claims to have found the story in old memoirs. D'Artagnan leaves home with his father's counsels and his mother's balsam, quarrels with Rochefort at Meung, offends Athos, Porthos and Aramis in turn, and then fights at their side against Jussac and the Cardinal's Guards, which wins him an audience with Louis XIII.

• The queen's diamond studs (Chapters VII-XXII)

  D'Artagnan takes the servant Planchet, lodges with Bonacieux, and loves Constance. Buckingham's secret visit to the queen, the Cardinal's scheme over the twelve studs, the ride to London in which the friends are left behind one by one, and the triumph at the ballet of La Merlaison.

• Gathering the scattered friends (Chapters XXIII-XXVIII)

  Constance vanishes at a rendezvous at Saint-Cloud. D'Artagnan collects Porthos at Chantilly, Aramis among his theological disputants at Crèvecoeur, and Athos barricaded in an Amiens cellar, where Athos tells, as if of a friend, the story of a nobleman who married a woman branded as a criminal.

• Equipment and Milady (Chapters XXIX-XL)

  The four scramble for campaign equipment: Porthos at his procurator's wife's thin dinner, Aramis through a letter from a noble lady, Athos by the sale of a ring. D'Artagnan duels and spares Lord de Winter, is drawn to Milady, deceives her, discovers the brand on her shoulder, and escapes her rage; the Cardinal offers him a commission, which he declines.

• The siege of La Rochelle (Chapters XLI-XLVII)

  Hired assassins and poisoned Anjou wine nearly kill d'Artagnan. At the Red Dovecot inn, the musketeers overhear through a stovepipe the Cardinal's commission to Milady; Athos confronts his wife and takes Richelieu's signed pardon. The breakfast in the bastion Saint-Gervais lets the friends hold a council while defending the ruins.

• Milady's captivity and Felton (Chapters XLVIII-LIX)

  Lord de Winter imprisons Milady at his castle near Portsmouth under the guard of John Felton. Over five days she plays on Felton's Puritan faith and pity, persuades him that Buckingham has wronged her, escapes with his help, and watches as Felton stabs the duke on August 23, 1628.

• Béthune, Armentières and the Lys (Chapters LX-LXVI)

  Milady reaches the Carmelite convent at Béthune where the queen has hidden Constance, and poisons her before the musketeers arrive. The friends, Lord de Winter and the man in the red cloak track Milady down, hear the charges against her, pronounce their pardons, and hand her to the executioner of Lille.

• Conclusion and Epilogue (Chapter LXVII; Epilogue)

  Rochefort arrests d'Artagnan; Richelieu, shown the paper bearing his own signature, gives him a lieutenant's commission with the name left blank. Athos, Porthos and Aramis each refuse it. La Rochelle surrenders in October 1628; Porthos marries, Aramis enters a convent, Athos retires, and d'Artagnan and Rochefort end as friends.

Characters

• D'Artagnan, protagonist

  A brave, quick-tempered and ambitious young Gascon who becomes the fourth of the inseparable friends and finally a lieutenant of musketeers.

• Athos (the Comte de la Fère), musketeer

  The eldest of the three, noble, grave and melancholy, who drinks to forget the wife he believes he lost.

• Porthos, musketeer

  A giant, vain and good-hearted, fond of fine clothes and good dinners.

• Aramis, musketeer

  A graceful, secretive musketeer who keeps saying he will soon take holy orders.

• Milady (Lady de Winter), antagonist

  A beautiful, ruthless agent of Cardinal Richelieu and the secret wife of Athos.

• Cardinal Richelieu, chief minister

  Louis XIII's brilliant chief minister, a formidable opponent who admires courage even in his enemies.

• Constance Bonacieux, beloved

  The queen's devoted linen-maid, wife of the mercer Bonacieux and the object of d'Artagnan's love.

• Queen Anne of Austria, queen of France

  The Spanish-born queen whose gift of the diamond studs puts her honor in danger.

• George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, English minister

  Charles I's favorite, whose devotion to the queen draws him into conflict with Richelieu.

• Louis XIII, king of France

  A suspicious, easily influenced king who enjoys his musketeers' quarrels with the Cardinal's Guards.

• M. de Tréville, captain of the Musketeers

  A fellow Gascon and old friend of d'Artagnan's father who protects his men before the king.

• Rochefort, the Cardinal's agent

  The man of Meung, d'Artagnan's first enemy and last-page friend.

• John Felton, Puritan officer

  Lord de Winter's earnest young lieutenant, whom Milady turns into Buckingham's assassin.

• Planchet, Grimaud, Mousqueton and Bazin, servants

  The lackeys of d'Artagnan, Athos, Porthos and Aramis, each a comic echo of his master.

Lessons

• Four swords, one oath

  The friendship of d'Artagnan, Athos, Porthos and Aramis begins in a string of foolish quarrels and becomes a sworn loyalty. Each friend has a different temperament and failing, yet they pool their money, cover each other's absences and ride into danger together. Dumas shows friendship as a practical, costly commitment rather than a feeling.

  • How do three duels arranged in anger turn into a lasting friendship outside the Carmes-Deschaux convent?
  • What does each friend give up for the others during the ride to London?
  • Is there anything the four would not do for one another, and should there be?

• Courage and recklessness

  D'Artagnan's father tells him to fear no quarrel and to fight on all occasions, and the young Gascon obeys almost too well. Over the novel his courage becomes more disciplined: he learns to plan, to wait, and to choose fights worth having, as in the council held on the bastion Saint-Gervais.

  • Is the elder d'Artagnan's advice wise, foolish, or both?
  • Where does d'Artagnan act rashly, and where does he show real prudence?
  • What distinguishes the courage of Athos from the courage of Porthos?

• Loyalty to king, queen and conscience

  The musketeers serve Louis XIII, yet they risk their lives to protect the queen from the king's suspicion and the Cardinal's schemes. Richelieu is no mere villain: he governs France, besieges La Rochelle, and rewards d'Artagnan's courage at the end. The novel sets several loyalties side by side and lets readers ask how they fit together.

  • Are the musketeers loyal or disloyal to the king when they help the queen?
  • Why does Richelieu give d'Artagnan the commission instead of punishing him?
  • What does Dumas suggest about serving a state run by ambitious men?

• Justice, vengeance and pardon

  The friends try Milady by night in a lonely place, list her crimes and hand her to an executioner. Each of them pronounces a pardon before she dies, and Athos pays the executioner so that it may be plain they act as judges. Dumas leaves the scene morally weighty and unresolved, a private tribunal acting where the king's justice has not.

  • Is the trial at Armentières justice or revenge?
  • Why do Athos, Lord de Winter and d'Artagnan each speak words of pardon before the execution?
  • What would have happened if the friends had brought Milady before a royal court instead?

Context

The novel is set between 1625 and 1628, during the reign of Louis XIII and the ministry of Cardinal Richelieu, who was strengthening royal authority against great nobles and the Huguenot stronghold of La Rochelle. Real people fill its pages: the king, Anne of Austria, the Duke of Buckingham, Tréville and John Felton, whose stabbing of Buckingham at Portsmouth on August 23, 1628 is historical. The real d'Artagnan, Charles de Batz de Castelmore (c. 1611-1673), served later under Louis XIV and was killed at the siege of Maastricht; Dumas moved him back a generation.

Composition

Dumas found his starting point in the Mémoires de M. d'Artagnan (1700), a fictional memoir by Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras, and worked on the plot with Auguste Maquet, whose share in the drafting has long been discussed. The novel ran as a feuilleton in Le Siècle from March 14 to July 11, 1844, and appeared in book form the same year. The library text is an anonymous 19th-century English translation as given by Project Gutenberg; it includes Dumas's preface, sixty-seven chapters and the epilogue.

Reception

The book was an immediate popular success and launched the d'Artagnan Romances, continued in Twenty Years After (1845) and The Vicomte de Bragelonne (1847-1850). It has been adapted for stage and screen many times and fixed the image of the swashbuckling musketeer, plumed hat and rapier, for readers around the world. The motto the friends swear became proverbial for loyal companionship.

Comparisons

• the-count-of-monte-cristo

  Dumas's other great serial of 1844: where the musketeers' revenge on Milady is a hurried night tribunal, Edmond Dantès spends years constructing his, and both novels end by questioning how far a man may act as God's instrument.

• the-scarlet-pimpernel

  Orczy's league of English gentlemen rescuing aristocrats in 1792 borrows the musketeer pattern of secret oaths, disguises, a clever enemy agent and a hero who hides his daring behind a pose.

• ivanhoe

  Scott's novel taught Dumas's generation how to mix invented heroes with real kings and ministers; compare Richard the Lionheart's incognito with Buckingham's secret visit to the Louvre.

• cyrano-de-bergerac

  Rostand's Gascon cadet of the 1640s, fighting with sword and wit and serving at the siege of Arras, is a theatrical cousin of d'Artagnan and shares his Gascon swagger.

• don-quixote

  D'Artagnan's arrival on a ridiculous yellow pony, armed with his father's chivalric advice, deliberately recalls the comic entry of a would-be knight; Chapter I calls him a Don Quixote of eighteen.

Quotes

For Students

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

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The three duels d'Artagnan schedules in Chapters IV-V and how the Cardinal's Guards turn them into an alliance.
• How each musketeer is left behind on the road to Calais, and what each delay reveals about his character.
• Athos's story of the Comte de la Fère's marriage in Chapter XXVII, and how it explains his melancholy.
• The council on the bastion Saint-Gervais, where a reckless wager becomes cover for a careful plan.
• The five days of Milady's captivity, as she studies Felton and bends his faith to her purpose.

Key terms and names

Musketeers of the Guard

The king's mounted household soldiers under Tréville, constant rivals of the Cardinal's Guards in the streets of Paris.

Gascon

A native of Gascony in southwestern France; Dumas makes d'Artagnan proud, poor, brave and quick to take offense, the stock Gascon of French comedy.

Diamond studs (ferrets)

Twelve jeweled ornaments the king gave the queen; her gift of them to Buckingham sets off the first great adventure.

Fleur-de-lis brand

The lily mark burned on convicted criminals in old France; it is the proof of Milady's past on her shoulder.

Siege of La Rochelle

Richelieu's 1627-1628 siege of the Huguenot port, supported by an English fleet under Buckingham, which surrendered in October 1628.

Carte blanche

Richelieu's signed pardon covering whatever its bearer has done; it passes from Milady to Athos to d'Artagnan.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension What three gifts does d'Artagnan receive from his father, and what becomes of the letter to Tréville?
2. Comprehension Why must the queen wear the diamond studs at the ballet, and how does d'Artagnan bring them back in time?
3. Comprehension How do the friends learn of the Cardinal's plan against Buckingham at the Red Dovecot inn?
4. Interpretation Why does Dumas make Richelieu both the friends' great opponent and the man who finally rewards d'Artagnan?
5. Interpretation How does Milady persuade John Felton, and what does that episode suggest about zeal without wisdom?
6. Interpretation What do the servants Planchet, Grimaud, Mousqueton and Bazin reveal about their masters?
7. Big Question Can private persons ever rightly act as judges when public justice is absent or corrupt?
8. Big Question Is loyalty to friends a virtue that can conflict with loyalty to one's country or king?

Faith Connections

• Romans 12:19 (Scripture)

  Paul's command to leave vengeance to God stands behind the hard question of the Lys: the friends speak pardons and the executioner invokes God's justice, yet they themselves carry out the sentence.

• Proverbs 18:24; John 15:13 (Scripture)

  A friend who sticks closer than a brother, and the greatest love that lays down life for friends, measure the musketeers' oath and their willingness to be left wounded on the road so that one may reach London.

• Matthew 7:15 (Scripture)

  Milady's appearance before Felton as a persecuted Protestant, praying and quoting psalms, is a vivid case of the wolf in sheep's clothing.

• Augustine, City of God XIX.6 (Great Conversation)

  Augustine describes the human judge who must sentence without seeing into hearts; the night tribunal at Armentières dramatizes the weight of judging another person.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Courage and loyalty bind men of very different temperaments into a single force; such a band can outwit even the most powerful minister in France; but when friends take justice into their own hands, even a just sentence carries a heavy cost.

Rhetorical device: foil. Each servant mirrors his master (silent Grimaud for grave Athos, showy Mousqueton for Porthos, pious Bazin for Aramis), and the radiant Constance is set against the dark Milady.

Debate: Resolved: that the musketeers were justified in executing Milady at Armentières.

Memory Work

All for one, one for all.

Never fear quarrels, but seek adventures.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Trace how d'Artagnan changes from the boy who provokes three duels in one morning to the lieutenant who offers his commission to each friend in turn.

Comparison with The Count of Monte Cristo: Compare the musketeers' judgment of Milady with Edmond Dantès's long revenge in The Count of Monte Cristo: what does Dumas suggest in each about human beings who act as instruments of providence?

Medical Lens

Medicine appears as the background of a sword culture and a world of poisons. D'Artagnan's mother sends him off with a balsam said to cure every wound not reaching the heart, a folk remedy he tries on himself and then offers Athos before their duel; duel wounds are dressed by friends and innkeepers; and Milady works with poisoned wine and a poison carried in a ring. The poisoning of Constance is shown through rapid symptoms and death, in keeping with the period's literary convention of swift, mysterious poisons rather than any clinical description.

• Chapters I-V

  The mother's miraculous balsam and its use on d'Artagnan's own wounds after Meung, then its offer for Athos's wounded shoulder.

  WAR Wounds
• Chapter XLII, The Anjou Wine

  Poisoned wine sent as a gift kills a soldier who drinks it before the musketeers can.

  Pharmacology Poisons
• Chapter LXIII, The Drop of Water

  Constance dies in the convent after drinking the wine Milady has drugged.

  Pharmacology Poisons

Creative Prompts

• Fiction

  Write the ride from Paris to Calais from Planchet's point of view, as each musketeer falls behind.

• Classroom

  Map the novel's journeys: Tarbes, Meung, Paris, Chantilly, Amiens, Calais, London, La Rochelle, Portsmouth, Béthune and Armentières, with one event at each stop.

• Dialogue

  Stage a debate between Richelieu and Tréville before Louis XIII about whether the musketeers' brawls serve or harm the kingdom.

• Essay

  Was the night trial of Milady justice? Argue from the text, considering the pardons and the executioner's refusal of Athos's money.

• Adaptation

  Turn the breakfast on the bastion Saint-Gervais into a short play in three scenes.

Further Reading

• Twenty Years After, Alexandre Dumas

  The sequel, set during the Fronde, reuniting the four friends on opposite sides.

• The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas

  Dumas's other great novel of 1844, on imprisonment and revenge.

• The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo, Tom Reiss

  Life of Dumas's father, General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas.

• Richelieu and Olivares, J. H. Elliott

  Comparative study of the two great ministers of the period.