The Three Musketeers
Three musketeers. Two enemies. One major battle.’‘All for one and one for all!’Country boy d'Artagnan is desperate to join the King's elite band of bodyguards, the Musketeers. And when his fiery loyalties (which often get him into trouble) and incredible sword skill (which get him out again) manages to impress brash Porthos, foppish Aramis and melancholy Athos, the three musketeers and d'Artagnan become friends for life.When they discover that the King they protect is under threat, the Musketeers must outwit the scheming Cardinal Richelieu and the seductive spy Milady - encountering adventure, friendship, romance and intrigue along the way - in order to save France from destruction. But could a deadly secret be the death of them all?
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The Three Musketeers
Alexandre Dumas
Table of Contents
1 The Three Presents of M. D’Artagnan, the Father
2 The Antechamber of M. de Treville
4 The Shoulder of Athos, the Belt of Porthos, and the Handkerchief of Aramis
5 The King’s Musketeers and the Cardinal’s Guards
6 His Majesty King Louis the Thirteenth
7 The Domestic Manners of the Musketeers
9 D’Artagnan Begins to Show Himself
10 A Mousetrap of the Seventeenth Century
11 The Intrigue Becomes Confused
12 George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham
22 The Ballet of “The Merlaison”
34 Concerning the Equipments of Aramis and Porthos
35 All Cats are alike Gray in the Dark
38 How, without disturbing himself, Athos obtained His Equipment
44 The Utility of Stove Funnels
47 The Council of the Musketeers
50 A Chat between a Brother and Sister
52 The First Day of Imprisonment
53 The Second Day of Imprisonment
54 The Third Day of Imprisonment
55 The Fourth Day of Imprisonment
56 The Fifth Day of Imprisonment
57 An Event in Classical Tragedy
59 What happened at Portsmouth on the Twenty-third of August, 1628
61 The Carmelite Convent of Bethune
IT IS ABOUT a year ago, that in making researches in the Bibliotheque Nationale for my History of Louis the Fourteenth, I by chance met with the Memoirs of Monsieur d’Artagnan, printed by Peter the Red at Amsterdam—as the principal works of that period, when authors could not adhere to the truth without running the risk of the Bastile, generally were. The title attracted my notice; I took the Memoirs home, with the permission of the librarian, and actually devoured them.
It is not my intention here to make analysis of this curious work, but to satisfy myself by referring such of my readers to the work itself as appreciate the pictures of those times. They will there discover portraits traced by the hand of a master; and although these sketches are mostly drawn on the doors of a barrack, or the walls of an inn, they will not find them less true than those likenesses of Louis XIII., of Anne of Austria, of Richelieu, Mazarin, and the majority of the courtiers of that age, drawn by M. Anguetil.
But, as every one knows, that which strikes the eccentric mind of the poet, does not always make an impression on the great mass of readers. So, whilst admiring (as all others doubtless will do) the details which we have described, the thing which strikes us most, is one which certainly had not attracted the attention of any other person. D’Artagnan relates, that on his first visit to M. de Treville, Captain of the Royal Musketeers, he met three young men in the ante-chamber, serving in the illustrious corps into which he solicited the honour of being admitted, and bearing the names of Athos, Porthos, and Aramis.
We confess that these foreign names struck us much, and we suspected that they were feigned appellations, by which d’Artagnan had perhaps concealed the names of illustrious persons; if, perchance, the bearers of them had not themselves chosen them, when, through caprice, discontent, or lack of fortune, they had donned the simple coat of a Musketeer. Therefore we could not rest satisfied till we had found in contemporary literature some trace of the extraordinary titles which had so forcibly excited our curiosity. The mere catalogue of the books we read to gain this end would fill a whole chapter, which would perhaps be very instructive, but certainly far from amusing, to our readers. We will, therefore, content ourselves with saying, that at the very moment when, discouraged by such fruitless investigations, we were about to abandon our researches, we at last, guided by the counsels of our illustrious and learned friend, Paulin Pâris, discovered a manuscript folio, numbered 4772, or 4773, we forget which, having for its title—
THE MEMOIRS OF M. LE COMTE DE LA FÈRE;
RELATING TO SOME OF THE EVENTS WHICH PASSED IN FRANCE ABOUT THE END OF THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIII, AND THE BEGINNING OF THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV.
